Love & War
by charrrr
Summary: When Hazel Clarrison is reunited with who she thought was the love of her life, they are both thrilled and as everything starts coming together, she couldn't be happier. She is madly in love and wants to spend the rest of her life with him... But then the unexpected happens and she has to reconsider her future plans. Will anybody have their happy ending?
1. Chapter 1

_Author's note: This is the second in my series (I do not own the Benedict's unfortunately though), following on from Safe & Sound. S & S isn't yet finished, but I have the next four chapters written up and it'll finish shortly after them. This is set after S & S (this chapter is before it though- note the dates) and this chapter is really just a chapter to set the scene of the story and introduce Hazel. _

_Please leave reviews. If I get a few positive comments, I'll post the next chapter (I have up to chapter four already written up, ready for editing). _

_Hope you like it!_

_Charlotte xo_

* * *

**13th September 2009**

Uriel felt unbelievably lost and out of place as he squeezed his way through the corridors that were packed with students rushing to get to the first lesson of the first term of the year. It was bad enough that he was in an entirely different country - albeit, it had been his idea, but actually going through with it was something else entirely - and away from his family for the first time ever seeing as he'd moved so that he could study Masters of Law at King's College London just like his father had back in the day, but now he felt like he didn't belong here and everybody around him knew it too. It was a ridiculous notion, he knew that, but the feeling just wouldn't leave him.

Finally, he reached his allocated classroom and was relieved to realise that he wasn't late like he thought he would be. There were only three other students in the room, none of whom cast even a glance towards Uriel as he took a seat near the back of the room. He took a notepad and pen out of his bag and put them on the desk, not caring if he looked like a geek eager to start his lesson, because that was exactly who he was.

After a few awkward, silent minutes, the door opened as another student entered. She was wearing a short white summer dress with a red cardigan and red pumps. She was tall and the dress showed off her long legs and emphasized her ample cleavage. Her chestnut hair was in short curls to her shoulders and she had golden brown skin. The girl looked up and noticed Uriel looking at her, her owl brown eyes staring straight back at him.

Without a falter, she began to walk towards him with confidence in her stride. Surprisingly, she chose to sit down next to Uriel despite the fact there were plenty of other empty seats in the room.

As if they were old friends and not utter strangers to each other, she began to talk to him. "So my mum totally didn't think I would get into uni. Boy, did I prove her wrong! I got top marks in my A-Levels, and knew instantly that I wanted to go to this university. I'm starting to regret it already though; I hate it here. I have no friends here, my roommate is a complete bitch, and it took me half an hour to find the right classroom. Oh and I've been knocked to the ground three times already with nobody offering to help me up. This place sucks. How's your first day been?"

Uriel blushed, just like he always did whenever an attractive girl spoke to him; he couldn't help it, he was just a naturally shy person. "Not the best," he admitted with a small smile. "Evidently not as bad as yours though- I've managed to stay on my feet."

The girl laughed, a tinkling, melodic sound. "You're American: nice. At least I'm in my home country," she teased. "I'm Hazel Clarrison."

"Uriel Benedict," he returned the introduction.

"Uriel," Hazel repeated, trying the name on her tongue, "that's an unusual name. I like it though, it's not a boring grandma name like mine is. So is this your first day at university, or just your first year here? My roommate has been to two other universities apparently, but became a failure and dropped out of both. Hopefully she'll do the same with this one."

Uriel chuckled. "First year here. I'm 19, so I spent a year at a college in Denver before deciding I wanted a change of scenery. What about you?"

"Well I'm 18 so I've only just finished sixth form," she explained. "So my first year in higher education here."

For some reason, Uriel felt disappointed that they weren't the same age. There was a very little chance of Hazel being a savant, let alone being his soulfinder, but he could never stop himself from hoping whenever he met a girl he liked. Trace met his soulfinder before he even fully understand what one was, why couldn't Uriel find his so easily and simply? It just wasn't fair.

Unaware of Uriel's inner monologue, Hazel continued talking, changing the subject. "Listen," she said, "some guys on campus are throwing a party tonight. You should come with me. I mean, it might be a total bore, but it might also make this place suck a little less."

"I'm not sure if I should go," he said hesitantly.

"Please do not tell me you're one of those boring guys who spend every night stuck inside studying and never going to parties." Uriel didn't answer because embarrassingly, she had his personality in a nutshell. "Woah, man! Okay Uriel, I promise that by the end of this month, you will be having fun here."

"I'm starting to think you're going to be a bad influence on me," he grinned.

"Well you'd be right about that," she said with a cheeky glint in her eyes. "So, you're coming to the party with me tonight whether you want to or not."

"Well, I guess that's settled then," he laughed.

* * *

**21st November 2009**

They made a gorgeous couple: the golden-brown skinned tall and curvy beauty and the caramel-skinned, tall, wiry and lanky American with short dark hair and striking blue eyes. Thanks to Hazel, they both became popular on campus, invited to all the parties and never pushed around in the corridor. Hazel brought out the fun-loving side of Uriel and, seeing as she was a girl who loved partying and playing games, Uriel tamed her and made sure she found the time to do her work and focus in her classes.

They were perfect for each other in every way, which made Uriel even more heartbroken to know she wasn't his soulfinder. But did it really matter that much? He might never find his soulfinder; he could live a long, happy and normal life with Hazel. He knew that he'd easily be able to spend a lifetime with her, and it thrilled him to know that she felt the same way.

Despite it being a November day in the usually chilly England, the sun was shining warmly and brightly. In a park, sat on a red picnic blanket on the grass, sat Uriel and Hazel. After spending some time eating and laughing together, they were now relaxing. Uriel was sat behind Hazel, his legs spread out on either side of her, his arms around her waist and his chin on her shoulder.

He gently kissed her neck before saying, "I still remember the day we met. You scared me a little, I have to admit. You just strolled in so confidently, like you knew exactly what you wanted and would stop at nothing to get it."

Hazel smiled at the memory as it formed in her mind. "I was playing a game. The goal was to choose one random person in that classroom - boy or girl - and make friends with them straight away. As soon as I saw you, I sensed something special about you, and knew I had to have you. So I went for it... And I got exactly what I wanted."

Uriel chuckled and the vibrations of it rumbled against Hazel's body. "Sounds like something you'd do," he teased.

"Oh, whatever," she rolled her eyes. "You love me, don't deny it."

"Wasn't planning to," he replied.

Hazel turned around in his arms slightly and pressed her lips against his. She'd had plenty of boyfriends before - some of which she had only dated to occupy her time, as bad as it sounded - but she'd never been in love before. Truthfully, she imagined that she was incapable of loving a boy and until she found her soulfinder, she expected to go from one boy to the next, never being completely happy and never being in love.

So it had surprised her when she fell head over heels in love with Uriel Benedict so quickly. She knew that he could never be 'the one' because as far as she was aware, he wasn't a savant and besides, he couldn't be her soulfinder because they were different ages... But she didn't care. They loved each other and were happy together, and that's all that mattered in her opinion. She wasn't going to deny herself the pleasure of being with the man she loved just because she had a soulfinder out there somewhere who, considering the odds, she would probably never meet.

"Well I love you too," she said to Uriel before kissing him again.

* * *

**12th March 2010**

It felt like the world was crashing around them, but in reality it was just as it normally was. The other people in the airport didn't care about their story, they didn't even give them a second glance as they were too busy wrapped up in their own lives.

Uriel was moving back to America today, and as much as he and Hazel loved each other, they knew they wouldn't be able to deal with a long distance relationship and barely ever seeing each other, so it was a mutual decision for them to split up. They were both thankful that at least they were ending on good terms. Uriel had told Hazel that he had to go home because of 'family problems', which wasn't a lie. Trace's best friend had just got married which had reminded Trace all over again about Georgie not being around and he was slowly spiraling back into depression; Zed's anger was starting to get worse and he was lashing out at his school friends now; and Victor was distancing himself from the family, blaming it on work, but Karla knew that really, he needed the balance of his soulfinder in his life, which he unfortunately didn't have. Karla and Saul had asked Uriel to come back for the sake of his brothers, and who was he to say no? If the roles were reversed, they'd give up everything for him if he needed them. Out of all of his brothers, Uriel was closest to Victor and vice versa, so the family were hoping Uriel would be able to talk some sense into him.

Hazel clung onto Uriel, sobbing. In all the time they'd known each other, Uriel had never seen Hazel cry before; she'd always seemed so strong, so untouchable from the bad things in the world and completely oblivious to them.

He wrapped his arms around her and stroked her back as he softly crooned, "shh. Shh. Everything's going to be okay, you'll be fine without me."

"No, I won't; you don't know that," she replied, pulling back a little to look up into his eyes. "I don't want you to go."

"Me either," he said past the lump in his throat. "But I have to, my family needs me. This doesn't have to be the end forever for us, Hazel; we might end up together in the future, you never know. We just have to keep on hoping."

"I hope we do," she smiled sadly. "I'll always love you."

"And I'll always love you," he replied, no longer able to hold back his tears. They streamed down his face endlessly, dripping off his chin and soaking into his shirt. He kissed her. He kissed her with everything he had, putting all of his love for her into that kiss, not caring that he didn't like PDA and that people might be staring. In the background, Uriel's flight was announced and he reluctantly broke the kiss, sighing. "I have to go, Hazel."

"I know," she nodded and managed to smile. "I'll miss you."

He sighed again and grabbed hold of her, kissing her one last time with just as much as passion as the one before. "Goodbye," he said afterwards, picking up his carry-on bag.

"Goodbye," she smiled through her tears.

A minute or two later, Uriel looked back over his shoulder and got one last look at Hazel a distance away from him, stood frozen as she cried, before the crowd of people swallowed her up and he lost her.


	2. Chapter 2

_Author's note: Thank you for the reviews on the first chapter, I am so glad people liked it :-) _

_Please leave reviews for this chapter too! :D xo_

* * *

**15th January 2013**

Hazel Clarrison felt like she hadn't slept in weeks. Truthfully, it had only been a few days though. She'd been assigned a case in Wrickenridge, Colorado, which had startled her as she remembered that her university boyfriend Uriel Benedict - the only boyfriend she'd ever loved and the one whom she'd never fully gotten over - was from there, and within three hours later she had been on a plane, being whisked away to another country.

Hazel was a lawyer - a lawyer for the savant net, which was different to normal lawyers in certain ways - and had been asked by her boss in the English branch to represent a man named Elliott Williamson, whom she was on her way to meet now. After landing in Wrickenridge airport, she had dropped her luggage off at the hotel she was staying in, before heading straight to the savant building in Denver, just outside of Wrickenridge. She'd barely had a moment to take in her surroundings before she was introduced to a small, petite blonde named Katherine Clarke- a woman who was showing Hazel around the building and looked to be in her early twenties just like Hazel, who was now 22 years old.

"Did your boss have a chance to brief you on Mr Williamson's case?" Katherine asked as she led Hazel down to the lowest floor in the building which was apparently where they held the interrogations.

"No," Hazel replied with a shake of the head. "There was no time. I heard he's been accused of murder?"

Katherine shook her head and said, "not just any murder. Mass murder. A house inhabited by a savant family of five - parents with a six year old, five year old and four month old - was blown up last week, killing all of them. Mr Williamson's driver's license was found outside the house, as well as his DNA being on the bomb, and the fact that Mr Williamson has no alibi is further proof that he's guilty. He's pleading not guilty and claiming that he's innocent but, well, the evidence is against him. In my opinion, I think it was him." She gave Hazel a file. "All the information you need to know is in that file right there. No offence, but your boss must really hate you if he gave you this case because I don't think there's any way you can win."

Hazel smiled falsely at the girl, disliking her already. "Perhaps," she answered. "Or maybe he knows I'm the best at what I do and that I'm the only one capable of clearing Mr Williamson's name."

"I guess," Katherine shrugged, clearly having no confidence in Hazel. "Either way, good luck, because the FBI Agent that you're up against is looking for evidence and _he's_ the best at what _he_ does. I've never known him to lose a case."

"Well, I've never lost a case either," Hazel retorted arrogantly.

They reached a grey door that had 'Interrogation room 4' on a plaque in the centre of the door and Katherine gestured to it. "He's in there. I'll leave you to it."

"Thank you," Hazel nodded, stepping past the other woman and going into the room, closing the door softly behind her.

Mr Williamson looked up at her, giving her a chance to take in his appearance. He was probably in his late thirties by the looks of the few wrinkles on his face and the small chunk of grey hair in his messy black hair. He had an authorative feeling about him, as if he were an important man, and he had purple bags under his eyes, matched with a worried expression.

"Who are you?" He asked as Hazel sat in the chair across from him.

"I, Mr Williamson," she answered, "am Hazel Clarrison. I'm going to be your lawyer and representing you in this case."

(line break)

Stood in the side room with his brother Will - who was in training to be an FBI agent - Victor Benedict looked up as a short, chubby man entered the room. He was called Gary Allen and Victor worked with him occasionally. "Mr Williamson's lawyer is here. Katherine's just talking to her before she goes in."

"Well good luck to her," Will scoffed. "There's no way the dude's innocent. Look at him: he's fidgeting, shaking, breathing heavily... He's nervous. And the evidence is just piling up against him."

Gary laughed and said, "I know. Her boss must hate her and have no confidence in her if he gave her this case."

The three men laughed then, before falling silent and looking through the one-way window when Mr Williamson's lawyer entered the room. She was tall with curves in all the right places, golden-brown skin and chestnut hair with blonde highlights that was in curls just past her shoulders. She was wearing a grey skirt suit with black heels, looking professional and serious. Victor thought she was beautiful, amazingly so.

She sat down across from the prime suspect in the case. From the position of the window - which would be a mirror to the two in the room - Victor, Will and Gary were looking from the side of the table.

"Who are you?" Mr Williamson, the suspect, asked, nervous tremors in his voice as well as his body.

"I, Mr Williamson, am Hazel Clarrison. I'm going to be your lawyer and representing you in the case." She had an English accent and a clear, soft voice that sounded strong and confident. Her name sounded familiar at first, but then Victor remembered that Uriel had an ex-girlfriend called Hazel. The family had never met Hazel because she lived in England, but Victor highly doubted that this was the same Hazel. What were the chances of her being a lawyer that just so happened to get a case in Wrickenridge where Uriel lived? Seriously, come on.

"I didn't hire a lawyer," Mr Williamson spoke.

"No, you didn't," Hazel shook her head. "But your sister contacted the savant net. She believes you're innocent and she's the one that's paying me to represent you."

"You're a savant?" He asked.

"Yep," she smiled. "Just like you. Now, Mr Williamson, can I call you Elliott?" He simply nodded in response. "This isn't an interrogation, I'm not one of those stupid and annoying FBI agents that act all tough and like they know everything. All they do is look at the facts and make their decisions from them. I however, actually take your story into consideration and basically ignore the evidence against you."

"Excuse me?" Victor asked. "Did she just offend us like I think she did?"

"Yeah, she did," Gary replied angrily. "Stupid lawyers, always thinking they're better than us."

"So I just want to ask you a few questions," Hazel continued. "This has all happened very quickly for me and I've only just got your file so I haven't read it yet. So just answer honestly, just tell me what you told them, okay? Where were you the night the bomb went off?"

"I was at home," he said in a flat voice. "Home is now a horrible flat, mind you. My wife found her soulfinder and left me, taking the kids with her."

"You have children?" She asked.

"Yeah," he nodded. "A thirteen year old and a nine year old. I have an older daughter as well, but she moved out of town, moved in with my sister, because she didn't get along well with my wife."

"What are your children's names?"

"How is this relevant?" Will muttered rhetorically.

"Bluebell, Daisy and Poppy," Elliott replied with a fond smile on his face. "They're beautiful."

"I'm sure they are," she smiled politely. "So can anyone confirm your alibi?"

The smile faded from his face and he shook his head. "No. Look, why are you even here? These lot are convinced I'm guilty because of the evidence they've found, nobody here is on my side. They're not going to let me go."

"I don't care what they think," Hazel said defiantly. "Elliott, I have never lost a case in my entire career and this isn't going to be the first."

"Bit over-confident, isn't she?" Gary remarked.

Hazel reached across the table with her left hand and placed it on one of Elliott's hands, which were both flat on the table, as if she were trying to hold his hand and console him. Victor frowned in confusion as Hazel's brown eyes suddenly glowed gold around the iris, but convinced himself that it was probably just a trick of the light. "Elliott," she said. "Did you have any involvement in the murder of that family?"

"No, I had no involvement at all and I have no idea who did it," he said, talking slowly and clearly.

Hazel moved her hand away and smiled. "Okay," she said.

"Okay?" Elliott replied, looking at her in confusion.

"Okay?" Victor repeated, not understanding how she could be so casual and believe him so easily.

"Okay," Hazel nodded. "I believe you. Let's just say that I'm a very good judge of character, and all I see in front of me is a brokenhearted man going through a tough time and being framed for a crime he didn't commit."

"You believe me?" He gasped in disbelief.

"I do," she said straight-forwardly, nodding her head again. "Now, Elliott, please excuse me. I literally only arrived in America about half an hour ago and I am just exhausted so I'm going to go back to my hotel room. I'll be in contact soon, preferably about trying to get you released on bail." She pushed the chair back and stood up.

"Miss Clarrison... Thank you. I can't even begin to express my gratitude," he stammered.

"There's no need to thank me, I'm just doing my job," she shrugged. "And call me Hazel."

With that, she turned and walked out of the room. "There's no way he's going to get bail," Gary said. "No way."

Ignoring him, Victor rushed out of the room without even thinking about what he was doing. Hazel was already half way down the corridor so he jogged to catch up to her and shouted out, "Miss Clarrison! Miss Clarrison!"

(line break)

Hazel turned around at the sound of her name being called and saw a tall, muscular and caramel coloured skinned man dressed in a suit jogging towards her. As he got closer, she took a few steps back, afraid that with his size he was going to knock her down or something.

"Can I help you?" She asked when he stopped just a step away from her.

"I just wanted to introduce myself," the man said, his brown eyes wide as he looked at her. Hazel briefly noticed that his dark hair was the same length as hers, but his was tied back into a low ponytail. He held his hand out and said, "I'm Agent Victor Benedict. I'm in charge of the case Mr Williamson is a suspect in."

Eyes wide, Hazel shook his hand and said, "Hazel Clarrison. It's lovely to meet you, Mr Benedict." She knew who he was. Despite never having met Uriel's family, she knew their names as he had talked about them a lot, and there was no denying that Victor and Uriel looked similar: they had the same dark hair, same height, same high cheekbones and skin colour. This Benedict was also just as handsome as she remembered Uriel being.

"Likewise," he said as they let go of each other's hands. "I was just watching your conversation with Mr Williamson and I can't help but think that you need to look at the facts and the evidence; I can't believe that you think he's innocent."

"I don't _think_ he is, I _know_ he is. I've never been wrong about a person, Agent Benedict, and I know that I'm not wrong now. There have been people framed in murder cases before, hasn't there? It's not uncommon. I'm going to prove that he's innocent."

Victor smirked cockily and replied, "well, I'm working on finding more evidence and proving that he's guilty, Miss Clarrison. And I'm going to win this case."

"We'll see," she grinned. "I guess it's war then."

"I guess it is," Victor shrugged. "And I'll win because he's guilty."

Hazel laughed and shook her head. "I think you're going to be disappointed. Get ready to lose, Benedict."

"Game on," he returned.

Hazel grinned one last time before turning around again and walking away, hips swaying seductively as she did so. Shaking his head to clear his mind of thoughts of her, he walked back into the side room where Will and Gary were still standing in. "CCTV," Victor said to them. "We need to look at CCTV tapes of the area. The quicker we prove he's guilty, the better."


	3. Chapter 3

**16th January 2013**

David Fletcher, the father in the family that were killed, had worked in an accountancy firm with Elliott Williamson and according to their colleagues, the two rarely ever agreed on anything and it was normal to see them arguing. Hazel read this from Elliott's file, and it annoyed her because that was another reason people would believe Elliott killed David and his family. David had recently got a promotion, one that Elliott had also wanted, and she'd seen cases that turned violent from things like that before.

She read through the file whilst sat in a small café in Wrickenridge in the afternoon. The café was quite packed - a majority of the customers being students from the high school on their lunch break - and the noise of their chatter and laughter enveloped the air. There was a reason Hazel chose this café to eat her lunch at: Daisy Williamson, Elliott's thirteen year old daughter. Legally, Hazel had no right to officially talk to Daisy without her parents' permission because she was underage, but Hazel never was one to give up so easily. After visiting Elliott this morning and having a friendly chat about his life before he was accused of murdering the Fletcher family, Hazel learnt that Daisy and her friends came to this café nearly every day for their dinner. Hazel had seen photos of Elliott's wife and children, so she spotted Daisy pretty quickly.

She was a small, chubby girl with blonde hair in a French plait, and she was wearing a thick, long red coat. She was sat at a table with a group of five other girls, but had pushed herself against the wall and wasn't interacting with her friends. She looked glum, depressed and occupied within her own thoughts, but who could blame her really after everything that had happened? As if sensing eyes watching her, Daisy looked up at Hazel and frowned.

Hazel quickly looked away, casting her eyes back down at the file, but looking up again when a moment later, somebody sat down across from her. "I was late to school this morning," Daisy said, "because I went to visit my dad at the savant net building. Before I went into his room, I saw you leave it. Who are you?"

"I'm your father's lawyer," Hazel answered. "You can call me Hazel. And you're Daisy, I'm guessing."

"Yeah," Daisy nodded, her young-looking face having a shocked expression. "I didn't know my dad had a lawyer. Nobody believes he's innocent."

Hazel took a long gulp of her cappuccino before answering the girl. "Do you believe he's innocent?"

"Of course," Daisy replied quickly, nodding her head insistently. "My dad could never have killed that family. When I still lived with him, I'd shout for him if there was a spider in my room and he could never kill it, he was always gentle and put it outside. He could never hurt anybody. He hated David, especially after the affair, but he wouldn't kill him. I know he wouldn't because he would have known how much it would have upset my mum, and he loved her, even after everything that happened."

Hazel paused a moment, her eyes wide in shock, unable to speak. Finally, she managed to ask, "what affair? Was David having an affair with your mum?"

"Yeah," Daisy sighed sadly. "David and my mum found out they were soulfinders, but it wasn't simple- they were both married with children. They started having an affair, which I admit was completely wrong and I've shouted at my mum for it, but in their defence they were planning to come clean about everything. Mum left my dad, and David was planning on leaving his wife... But then, well, they died. My mum's broken up about it."

"Your dad never mentioned this to me. Or anybody else for that matter," Hazel said. "The FBI that are trying to convict your father only known that your mum left him for her soulfinder. They don't know it was David. Why wouldn't he tell them?"

Daisy looked at Hazel as if she were stupid. "Why would he? It's just one more thing that makes him look guilty. He got jealous and angry, so he killed David and his family. Except he didn't. I know my dad would never do that."

"I believe you," Hazel reassured her. "I don't think your dad had anything to do with it either, Daisy, and I'm going to prove it. Look, if anybody else comes to talk to you - which they probably will because they're going to start searching deeper for evidence and a reason - do not tell them about David and your mum's affair. They might find out another way, but it'll give me a little time to work on proving your dad's innocence, okay? Just act like you had no idea about the affair, can you do that?"

"Of course," Daisy nodded.

"Daisy!" One of her friends called. "We're leaving in a minute."

"Okay, I'll be with you in a sec!" Daisy replied before saying to Hazel, "thank you for listening to me and believing me. I need my dad, please help him."

"I will. I promise," Hazel said honestly.

Daisy smiled at her gratefully before standing up and leaving the café with her friends. Alone again, Hazel looked back down at the file but didn't see anything that she didn't already know. She sighed and sat back in her chair, wondering what on Earth she was going to do that would be more important than this evidence and prove that Elliott was innocent.

Because he _was_ innocent; she knew for a fact that he was. As well as being extra good at telekinesis, Hazel's savant power was that by touch only, a person could tell her nothing but the truth. So when she'd held Elliott's hand in the interrogation room yesterday and asked him if he had any involvement in the murders of the Fletcher family, Elliott was physically unable to lie to her, hence how she knew he was telling the truth when he said that he was innocent. Now all Hazel had to do was prove to everybody else that Elliott hadn't killed the Fletcher family.

It wasn't going to be an easy task, especially considering she was working alone here.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a bright blue leaflet on her table that she hadn't bothered to look at earlier. Picking it up, she quickly read it: it was a leaflet to advertise a party tonight that was being held at the mayor's mansion to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Wrickenridge being a town since it was founded by a man name Thomas Collin. Everybody was invited.

A smile spread across Hazel's face. Talking to people was always the best way to hear gossip and find out things about suspects and victims that couldn't be found by doing background checks and the like. Practically the whole town would probably be at the mayor's house tonight, what better place to talk to the locals and gather gossip that might help her with the case? And not just that, but it was a party and Hazel _loved_ parties.

The leaflet read formal wear/black tie event, which meant that Hazel had to go out now and do something else she loved: shopping.

* * *

The Mayor's mansion was massive. Cars lined the streets near the home, people milling about and chatting to each other. It all looked over-friendly, like one of those silly sitcoms where the town all love each other and know everything about each other. Well, Hazel guessed, maybe it was; in a town this small, it would be hard not to know everybody here. Despite it being chilly and a light dusting of snow glittering on the ground, nobody looked cold or bothered by the weather, and the women were in dresses and heels as if it were summer.

Hazel couldn't blame them for going all-out to look nice however, as she had done the exact same thing. After shopping in some of the high street stores earlier that day, she hadn't found the perfect dress, but as she glumly walked back to the hotel she passed a little boutique owned by a little old lady called Esther. Esther made all of the clothes and nick-knacks in there herself and they were all one of a kind.

"I don't usually do this," she had said to Hazel, who had been her only customer at the time, "but I've just finished a dress and was planning on putting it up for sale tomorrow. But I think you should buy it- it would look beautiful on you with your height and skin colour. Come on through to the back and have a look at it, and if you like it then I'll measure it all out for you right here and fix it up for you so you can wear it tonight."

And, true to her word, she had. And just like she'd predicted, the dress looked magnificent on Hazel and it was officially her favourite dress already. A part of the dress was a light rose pink colour and was a boob-tube shape that stopped slightly above mid-thigh, showing off her long, tall legs. But, Esther had added a black lace material that covered the top of the chest and went into sleeves to the elbow; the lace made the dress different to others and made it stand out. Hazel was wearing plain black stiletto heels with the dress, silver bangles, and was wearing silver eyeliner as well as minimal other make-up. Her short chestnut hair was down in its natural curls - ending just past her shoulders - but she had clipped parts of it back to keep it out of her face, and the blonde highlights in her hair stood out.

There was no denying the fact that because Hazel had been brought up to always be confident within herself, she could be slightly vain the majority of the time, and tonight was no exception. In her opinion, she hadn't looked this good for a few months now and it was nice to make an effort for something again.

After paying the taxi driver - and reminding herself to hire a rental car as soon as possible - she stepped out of the car and shut the door behind her, holding a black clutch in her hand. She didn't need a notepad to record her notes as she was fairly good at remembering what people told her without having to write it down.

As she started to slowly walk up the long pathway that led to the mansion, a short woman in a tacky bright pink dress bustled up to Hazel, peering up at her tall frame and pursing her lips. "Excuse me love, but I don't think I've seen you around town before..."

"No, I'm just here for work," Hazel replied politely. "I'm a lawyer, I'm working on a case here."

"Ah." The woman nodded her head in realization. "I'm guessing it's the Fletcher family case? That's the only one I know of around here that would bring a new lawyer into town."

"Yes, that's the one. What do you think of it all?"

"Well I heard rumours that Elliott Williamson did it, but I knew that man as he was growing up. I used to babysit him, in fact. Lovely boy, he was. I find it so hard to believe that he killed that family, but I guess anybody can snap and do something unexpected, can't they?"

"Yes, I guess they can," Hazel replied nonchalantly.

"My name is May Hoffman, by the way," the lady introduced herself. "Do you know anybody in town?"

"I'm Hazel Clarrison. And no, not really. I went to university with Uriel Benedict a few years ago but I haven't seen him in a while, not even since I arrived in town."

"Ah, a Benedict! These days I forget which one's which there's that many of them," she sighed with a shake of her head. "A big family. Most of them are quite well behaved but a few of the younger ones get in trouble a lot; it's a shame because Karla Benedict is a lovely woman so they're making her look bad, you see."

They arrived at the mansion and were greeted through a set of large double doors into a large lobby with a spiral staircase leading upstairs. Patio doors were at the back of the room, leading outside which more than half of the guests had already passed through to. "Do you have any idea where the Benedict's will be lurking around?" Hazel asked hopefully. "I'd love to be able to catch up with Uriel."

Mrs Hoffman scoffed and said, "oh, those lot are always late. I wouldn't be expecting them for at least another twenty minutes if I were you," she laughed, a throaty unwelcome sound. "Now Hazel, it was lovely to meet you, dear. I'm going to go and find my nephew, Nelson. He's always trying to hide from me at things like this, Lord knows why!"

Hazel laughed. "Okay, well good luck, Mrs Hoffman."

Once alone, Hazel chose to wait in the lobby for a little while longer before going into the garden with the others. She wanted to wait for Uriel. She told herself not to approach him when he was with his family because that would be highly embarrassing, but she was desperate for a glance of the man she was still in love with. He really was the one that got away. There were at least ten other people still hanging around in the lobby, so she didn't look entirely like the odd one out, apart from the fact she was the only person on their own.

As people arrived and made their way outside, Hazel's heart started pounding nervously in her chest. What if Uriel didn't turn up? What if he did turn up, but he had a girlfriend with him? Hazel wasn't sure if she'd be able to cope with that.

Then, after ten minutes of waiting around, a large family arrived. There were eight men, all dressed in fancy black suits, two women, and a little girl. Hazel recognised Victor first, which made her decide that this was definitely the Benedict family. Next to him, she noticed, was Uriel. His hair was a little longer and shaggier, and he now had light stubble shadowing his face, but other than that he was still the same tall and skinny Uriel she had known at university. Hazel was guessing that the other young men were Victor and Uriel's brothers; the slightly shorter, balding man was their father; the small woman in a black dress was their mother; the blonde lady in a strapless, floor-length dress was a wife or girlfriend of one of the brothers; and the little girl with dark curls in a cute purple dress was a daughter of one of them. It was easy to guess all of that just by looking at them, and Hazel doubted there was anybody in this town that wasn't stunned by the beauty of every single member of the Benedict family.

Hazel longed to walk up to them and be reunited with Uriel just like they'd both hoped to happen one day, but refrained herself from doing so at that moment as she wanted him to be alone when she talked to him. The Benedict family were laughing amongst themselves as they walked through the lobby, out the patio doors and into the garden. Hazel was quick to follow.

Reminding herself that she had work to do whilst she was here, she looked around for someone to talk to, all the while staying close to the Benedict's and keeping an eye on Uriel. She saw a bald man in a grey suit sat at a garden table on his own, looking both bored and boring. _Perfect_, she thought to herself.

Walking up to him, she sat on one of the uncomfortable plastic chairs next to him and breathed a long sigh. "Wow. That walk up to the mansion completely killed me. I'm not used to walking so much!" She laughed.

The man laughed, eyes roving up and down Hazel's body as he creepily checked her out. "Yeah, it is tiring. My wife moaned about it the entire time."

"I don't blame her," Hazel scoffed. "So listen, you look like the brainy type of guy," she complimented him. "I heard there was a murder around here, some accountant or something. I just love gossip."

"Oh, yeah," the man nodded enthusiastically, clearing loving the attention of a young and attractive British woman. "I worked in the same building as him. David Fletcher, he was called. His family were killed too; a bomb went off in their house. Apparently this other guy that works in my building, called Elliott Williamson, killed him."

Hazel raised her eyebrows as if this was new information to her. "Oh my god, a bomb! That's some serious CSI shit there. What do you think happened? Do you think this Elliott guy did it?"

The man shrugged, looking awkward. "Well, I didn't really know him... But he was invited to a stag party that night, a friend of mine was getting married, and Elliott left after just an hour. Three hours later, the house blew up. So yeah, I think he did it."

Realising he wasn't going to be of any help to her, Hazel started to think of an excuse to leave him be, but was interrupted by a deep, husky voice. "Mr Cleavers, is this woman bothering you? I've heard it's a habit of hers."

Hazel looked behind her and narrowed her eyes when she saw Victor stood there, a false smile on his face. "Oh no," the man, Mr Cleavers, answered. "I was just helping her catch up on some of the town gossip, it's no bother."

"Is that so?" Victor replied. He reached down and grabbed Hazel's elbow, pulling her to her feet. "Well I'm afraid I need to steal her away from you now, I'm sorry."

Without waiting for a reply from him, he dragged Hazel away. "Hey!" She fought, pulling her arm out of his grip. "What the hell? There was no need for that!"

"You can't just go around asking people about the case," he hissed. "You have to have your badge and permission to-"

"No, I don't," she shook her head, a smug smile on her face. "That's what FBI agents need to talk to lawyers don't because we can ask things off the record and still use them as evidence if we wish to do so. So Agent Benedict, like I said, there was no need for that."

Victor glared at her. "Still, if you're going to talk to somebody it shouldn't be Mr Cleavers. He's not going to be helpful. Mind you, nobody here is going to confirm Mr Williamson's alibi, so you're wasting your time. Just leave the people alone."

Hazel rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest. "Oh, please. You're just worried I'll find out something you haven't. Which, by the way, has already happened."

"What do you kn-"

"Vick." The pair were interrupted at the sound of another masculine voice, this one not as deep as Victor's. A tall man reached them, looking at Victor. "Dad said that Mrs Williamson is here and that you should go and talk to her, reassure her that you're giving her husband a chance to be proved innocent."

"There's no way he's innocent, Uriel," Victor said as Hazel was stood frozen from being so close to Uriel again. "But whatever, I'll talk to her if I see her, I'm not going to go looking for her."

"He might be innocent," Uriel said. "Not everybody's guilty, people have been framed before." Hazel smiled- Uriel had always been a gentle soul, always believing the best from everybody unless proven otherwise. "Saying that though, the evidence is pretty thick against him. I don't think he'll be able to get out of this." Her smile fell.

Victor smirked. "Tell that to his lawyer," he nodded at Hazel. "She's deluded herself into thinking he's innocent and she can prove it."

Uriel, who probably hadn't even noticed that Victor wasn't alone, finally turned around and looked at Hazel. He smiled politely at first, until after a moment's hesitation, he recognised her. His smile faded as his mouth fell into an 'O' shape and his blue eyes widened. "Hazel?"He gasped.

* * *

_Thank you to butterflylion14, Spartacus1997 and skyblue881 for leaving reviews for the previous chapter :D_

_I'm so glad people like Hazel's character. I really wanted for her to be confident, snappy and, as butterflylion14 said: Kick ass. I usually write about girls that aren't like that at first, but then sometimes grow to be like that, so it's nice to be writing about a different kind of woman for once._

_Spartacus1997: If I tell you, I'm going to have to kill you ;) I don't want to give too much away about the story so you'll have to wait and see; there's definitely going to be a few twists and turns, some you may end up predicting, others that may surprise you :-)_

_Again, please leave some reviews! _

_Charlotte xo_


	4. Chapter 4

**16th January 2013**

Uriel looked around the crowd of people, his eyes scanning for one of his younger brothers. Finally, he saw the tall and muscular man that was Victor, who wasn't actually that hard to spot because of his size. He strolled towards him, not bothering to look to see if he was talking to anyone - which was unusual for Uriel seeing as he was normally quite polite - as he did so.

"Vick," he said when he got near, "Dad said that Mrs Williamson is here and that you should go and talk to her, reassure her that you're giving her husband a chance to be proved innocent."

Victor rolled his eyes and scoffed, an arrogant expression on his face. "There's no way he's innocent, Uriel. But whatever, I'll talk to her if I see her, I'm not going to go looking for her."

Uriel, who in most cases believed that everyone was innocent until proven guilty and deserved a fair trial, said, "he might be innocent. Not everybody's guilty, people have been framed before." He took a quick moment to think about what Victor had told him of the case. "Saying that though, the evidence is pretty thick against him. I don't think he'll be able to get out of this."

"Tell that to his lawyer," Victor said with a smirk, nodding his head to somebody. "She's deluded herself into thinking he's innocent and she can prove it."

Curiously, Uriel turned to look at the person Victor had been talking to - Mr Williamson's lawyer, apparently - and smiled, at first not recognising the woman. Then, he took in the large brown eyes and the short chestnut hair, he took in the gentle shape of her face and her full, pouty lips. It couldn't be true, he couldn't believe it! It wasn't her, it wasn't... _But it was_. The smile dropped from his face and he was pretty sure his eyes and mouth had opened wide, making him look like an idiot. She was just as beautiful as she had been at university, if more. Uriel gasped and only managed one word: "Hazel?"

She nodded, looking to be in shock herself. "Hey, Uriel."

Since he'd recognised her, it had felt to Uriel like they were the only two people in the world, but Victor spoiled that illusion when he asked, "you two know each other?"

Uriel nodded and answered his brother but kept his eyes on Hazel. "Remember Hazel, the girl I told you I dated in university in London? This is her."

"Well that's a huge coincidence..." Victor's voice was quiet, slightly strained. "I guess I'll give you two time alone to talk then. Hazel, I meant what I said: don't talk about the case in a public place like this."

Hazel scoffed and said, "whatever, Benedict. I don't follow by your rules, remember?"

Victor sighed and walked away without another word, neither Uriel nor Hazel bothering to say anything to him as he went. "What are you doing here?" Uriel asked.

"I'm Elliott's lawyer; I'm a lawyer for savants now," she answered. "I wanted to find you and talk to you - especially after I found out I'm working against your brother - but I was scared you would have moved on and wouldn't want anything to do with me, or you'd forgotten me."

"That would never happen," he replied softly. "_Never. _How on Earth could I forget a gobby madam like you, eh?" He laughed as Hazel hit him on the chest, acting offended. "Shall we sit down?" He asked. Hazel nodded and he led her towards a wooden bench that had been decorated with light pink ribbons. They sat down and for a moment just looked at each other in silence, small smiles on their faces in their delight at being in each others lives again. "So. You're a savant. And a lawyer, now. That's brilliant... I have to admit, I always knew that you'd be able to pass the university course, even with all the partying."

Hazel laughed and said, "but the parties were the best part of the whole experience! Honestly though, I can't believe you never told me you were a savant. I thought we told each other everything."

Uriel raised his eyebrows at her. "Well, you didn't tell me that you're a savant either, so I guess we're even. Anyway, I felt a little tension between you and my brother over there, I hope he's not causing you any trouble; he can be a little intense at times."

"Yeah, I noticed that," she scoffed. "He thinks that Elliott is guilty, I think he's innocent. There's bound to be some rivalry between us, isn't there? What are you doing now, then? Still interested in law?"

"Nah," he shook his head. "I finished up the course over here, but decided not to go into a career with law. That's more Trace, Vick and Will's job, really. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to do so I spent a lot time switching courses and trying to find the perfect one for me. I'm studying Animal Care at the moment, whilst volunteering at a zoo in Denver, and I'm really enjoying it; I think this is the right direction for me, working with animals."

"That's brilliant," she answered with a smile. "I'm glad that you're happy. I saw you with your family earlier and I just couldn't believe how much you and your brothers all resemble each other."

"Everyone says that," he laughed.

"So, who was the woman and the child?" She asked in a casual tone.

"Ah. Trace's soulfinder and wife, Georgie, and their daughter, Gracie. They only properly joined the family last year, it's a long story but everything worked out okay so that's all that matters."

"Great... So, do you have a girlfriend or anything?" She blurted the question out. "I mean, I'm just curious, I'm not jealous or anything. It's been years since we were together, I wouldn't blame you for moving on."

Uriel chuckled and shook his head. "Nah, I haven't really had the time to get to know somebody enough to date. What about you?"

"No, I'm single," she was quick to answer.

"Okay. Great."

An almost awkward silence fell upon the two. Uriel had hundreds of questions he wanted to ask her and there was also a part of him that just wanted to grab hold of her and kiss her and never let her go again, but he had never been brave enough to make a move like that and certainly wasn't at that moment. He was still numb from shock at finding Hazel at this party, as if it were fate that had brought her to his home town of Wrickenridge, and he was praying that they wouldn't leave here today and never see each other again.

Hazel sighed loudly and shook her head. "I see time hasn't made you any less shy than you were at university. Are you really going to just sit there after we've both confirmed we're single and not ask me on a date? Really, Uriel?"

He looked at her and smiled shyly, proving she was right about him still being shy, and gently asked, "would you like to go on a date with me?"

"I'd be delighted to."

* * *

Stood on the deck in the garden with a glass of water in his hand, Victor looked back over at Uriel and Hazel despite telling himself not to look at them; he'd lasted five minutes without glancing at them. The two were sat closely together, laughing and talking amongst each other, quite obviously lost in their own world and oblivious to the other guests at the party. He wished they weren't getting along so well and he felt bad about thinking that because he could see how happy his brother was and he didn't want to ruin that. He didn't know why he didn't want them getting close again. Was it because he disliked Hazel's brazen attitude and thought she wasn't good enough for his brother? Was it because he didn't know or trust her? Or was it because, like other men at the event that had given Hazel a few appreciative glances, he had noticed her stunning beauty and was simply just jealous of his brother getting attention from her whilst Hazel seemed to highly dislike Victor? Honestly he had no idea; maybe it was a mixture of all three.

His attention was diverted from the couple as his sister-in-law, Georgeanne, drifted over to him. She was wearing a strapless, floor-length white dress and her blonde hair was tied into a messy bun with a few loose tendrils framing her face. "You don't look you're enjoying yourself," she said with a smile. "What's wrong?"

"You know me, not really much of a party person," he shrugged. "Where's Trace?"

"On the dance floor with Gracie, she nagged him for ages to dance with her," she grinned.

"Sounds like Gracie," Victor chuckled. He looked back over towards Uriel and Hazel, a frown appearing on his face as he saw that they both had their phones out. Were they exchanging numbers?

"Ooh, who's that Uriel's talking to? I've never seen her around before," Georgie asked curiously. "Is she new to town?"

"I don't think she's living here permanently, just staying here a little while for work. She's a savant lawyer, working against me in a case. She's called Hazel... I don't like her," he replied. "She believes this guy's innocent and he's clearly not. I don't get along with her very well."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Georgie sighed. "Victor, you never get along with new people easily because you never trust them. She can't be that bad of a person, Uriel seems to like her."

"He dated her a few years ago, that's why. He's just happy to see her again. Anyway, I have a lot of work to do and things to figure out, I'm going to get going," he said.

"Your mum's going to kill you for leaving so soon, you know that, right?"

"I know," he smirked. "That's why I'm going to leave you to be the one to tell her. The last time I saw her she was talking to May Hoffman and Elizabeth White and those women can chat forever so I think I'll be able to sneak out without being noticed. Tell my mum I'll phone her later, okay?"

"Fine, fine," Georgie waved her hand in the air. "You best get going then."

And that's how ten minutes later, Victor found himself in his car and driving through the familiar streets of his home town. After a quick phone call with Gary Allen, he picked his colleague up from his house - he had decided not to go the party as he 'hated every loser in this town' - and heading to the Williamson house. It was an ordinary three-bedroomed house with a swing-set in the garden and a small flowerbed. Victor and Gary walked up the path and knocked on the door.

"You think she'll be in?" Gary asked.

"Thirteen year olds don't go to the founder's party," Victor explained. "So unless she's out with her friends, she'll be here. I can't see her wanting to spend time with her friends though, what with her dad being in prison and all. Can't see her in the mood for having any fun."

And he was right. The door swung upon, revealing a short blonde girl who looked up at the two men suspiciously. "My mum's not here..."

"Oh that's okay, we're not here to see your mother," Gary replied. "Daisy Williamson, yes? I'm Agent Allen and this is Agent Benedict." They showed her their FBI badges. "May we please come in and ask you a few questions about your father?"

"Um, I guess so," she shrugged. Daisy let them in and shut the door behind her, leading them into the living room where they sat down on a leather sofa across from her sat on a fabric red chair. "I talked to the police already about what I think."

"And what do you think?"

"My dad's innocent, I know he is," she said strongly. "I don't understand why people don't believe that, so if you're here to ask me to try and give you reasons why my dad might have set up a bomb in the Fletcher family's house to the kill them, I'm not going to be of much help."

Victor felt sorry for Daisy, he really did. She was only thirteen years old but that was old enough to understand everything that was going on and it mustn't be very nice for her to learn about the bad side of the world like that. He could see that she truly believed Elliott was innocent - just like any loving daughter would - so he could only begin to imagine what it'd feel like when she found out he was guilty of murdering a family.

"We're not here for that," Gary reassured the girl even though he believed the same as Victor. "We want to get every side to the story. We know that your mother and yourself want your father to come home, but that can't happen unless we have all the details about what happened that night."

"My mum doesn't want my dad home," Daisy frowned. "They were getting divorced because my mum found her soulfinder. She thinks he's guilty. She wants him to go to prison."

"Why does your mum think he's guilty?" Victor was quick to ask. "She wasn't even close to the Fletcher family, was she? Neither was your father, he simply worked with David. Why does your mum think he would kill David and his family?"

"I can't tell you," Daisy said with a shrug.

"Why not? If you're scared or anything like that, we can promise you nothing will happen to you if you tell us," Gary promised.

"No that's not it," she shook her head. "My dad's lawyer spoke to me this afternoon and I told her what I know. And I also know that my dad said the FBI don't believe him and are saying he's guilty. The lawyer believes my dad is innocent so I trust her with the information, I don't trust you. She told me not to tell you what I know."

"This lawyer... Does she happen to be called Hazel Clarrison?"

"Yes, that's her."

"Of course it is," Victor muttered bitterly. "Daisy, you realise that withholding information from us is against the law, don't you?"

"Yeah but you have no proof that I'm keeping something from you," she smiled smugly. "Look, I know you want me to tell you but you don't understand... Would you want to see your dad go to prison for something you know he didn't do? My dad could never hurt anybody, why doesn't anyone believe that? I don't care if I get in trouble for keeping something from you. I'm not telling you something that you'll use against my dad to try and prove that he's guilty."

"Daisy..." Victor sighed.

"Will you please just leave? My little sister's upstairs and she doesn't know what's going on; she's only nine and she'll ask questions if she sees you. I don't want to tell you anything and you can't force me to."

"Very well," Gary nodded and stood up. Victor copied him. He gave Daisy a card with his number on. "If you need anything, or decide you want to tell us something, just give us a call, okay?"

"Fine," she answered quietly before seeing them to the door and closing it behind them.

Gary looked up at Victor and said, "is it just me or did it sound like what she knows could be evidence, maybe even a reason why, about Elliott killing the Fletcher's?"

"No, I think so too," Victor nodded. "We need to find out what it is. I'll talk to Miss Clarrison; I knew there was something about her I didn't like. She's going to mess this whole thing up and interfere with evidence we need... Jesus."

"See, this is why I hate lawyers," Gary said as they got back into the car. "Especially lady lawyers. So damn stubborn and stupid if she really thinks he's innocent."

"I'm with you there," Victor agreed. "I'll find out what Hazel knows somehow, I can promise you that."

* * *

_Please leave reviews! xo_


	5. Chapter 5

**17th January 2013**

Delighted screams and humorous laughter echoed in the air, mixing with the pop music blasting from the numerous speakers in the area. Children ran around, defying their parents telling them to stay put; groups of friends went straight from one ride to the next; the staff at the game kiosks called out for people to play and try to win prizes; parents waved to little children as they passed them on a ride, screeching with happiness.

Everybody at the funfair that evening was lost in their own world, hardly paying attention to the strangers or their neighbours around them. If they'd looked towards the funhouse, they would have seen a couple in their early twenties stood in the line; a couple who looked happy and madly in love, like teenagers obsessed with each other, so comfortable around each other that you could only guess that they had been dating for a while.

However, they wouldn't have guessed that the couple was actually only on a first date. Uriel and Hazel had been at the funfair for over two hours now and had been on all of the rides (apart from the kiddy rides, of course) more than once, just for an excuse to keep spending time with one another. They'd been talking and laughing and eating candyfloss and reminiscing about old times. Truthfully, it was as if they hadn't spent years apart and Hazel didn't think she'd smiled this much in a while.

Again, she looked up at Uriel as he told her a story of an elephant at the zoo he volunteered at that had recently given birth and how he'd seen the whole thing and been amazed, and couldn't stop the grin that spread across her face. She felt so lucky to have known Uriel at university and to have been reunited with him now. She felt like she didn't deserve him - she knew that he was a much better person than she was - but was selfish enough not to care.

"You sound like you really enjoy working at the zoo," she pointed out when Uriel finished his story. "Like you're really passionate about it."

"Yeah, I am," he nodded. "I think after years of doing different courses, I've finally found the one that I have a future with. It's strange though because I've never even thought of working with animals before, I didn't even like them all that much, but now I can't imagine doing anything else. Did you always know that you wanted to be a lawyer?"

Hazel thought about that for a moment before answering as honestly as she could. "Not exactly. I mean, I always knew that I wanted to help people and my parents always said that I had the determination and the attitude to do so. But in high school, I always said that I wanted to be a therapist or a psychiatrist. I guess I just liked the idea of giving people advice and helping them through tough times, and I was really set on that."

"What made you change your mind?"

"My uncle, I guess. He had a friend who wasn't a very nice person, but my uncle was still friends with him, more because they'd known each other forever instead of actually liking him. The friend got into trouble with drug dealers and my uncle got dragged into it. He went to prison but I always knew that he was innocent, that he hadn't done anything wrong and was just trying to help a friend, so after that I got to thinking: how many people go to prison for crimes they didn't commit? And how many of them didn't have at least one person that believed in them? So that's when I decided I was going to be a lawyer and that I was going to take on cases that nobody else believed in."

"Like the Elliott Williamson case," Uriel added, nodding his head in understanding. "My brother's pretty convinced that Elliot's guilty."

"Yeah well, your brother is an idiot, no offence," Hazel said, making Uriel laugh. "My savant power is that I can make people tell me nothing but the truth. I know Elliott had nothing to do with it. I just have to prove it."

"You know, you and Victor are so like each other it's unbelievable. You're both stubborn and addicted to your job, both unwilling to admit that you're wrong. I feel like you're both going to clash so much and start a bloody war over this whole case, and I'm going to be stuck in the middle playing peacemaker."

"Well to be honest, you've always been a peacemaker. That's just the kind of person you are," she smiled at him. "But there's not going to be a war because I'll prove that Elliott's innocent before it can escalate to that."

"Well I don't really know who to believe," Uriel admitted. "I understand where you're coming from, that you trust your power and believe Elliott, but Victor's never been wrong. He's never lost a single case, ever."

"Neither have I," she grinned. "So I think Victor will be disappointed when his streak ends."

"Yep. Definitely going to be a war between you two."

Hazel burst out laughing which made Uriel himself chuckle, and they dropped the subject as they were finally let into the funhouse. For the first few minutes they walked around, simply enjoying each other's company and finding themselves amused at how the children around them were reacting to everything. They then entered the part of the funhouse with the crazy mirrors and found that they were alone in there. They laughed like children at their reflections being distorted, stretched and shrunk, posing to make their reflections look even funnier.

When Uriel stood in front of a mirror that made him look small and fat, Hazel laughed. "You look like a leprechaun or something," she giggled. "Oh, that is the best mirror yet."

Uriel laughed and turned to face her. "Don't deny that you found my reflection extremely attractive."

"Oh, getting a little cocky now, are we?" She teased and stepped towards him, putting her hands on his chest and looking into his eyes. "Okay, I'll admit it: you're a sexy leprechaun."

Uriel smirked and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Knew it. Now all I need is a green outfit and a pot of gold."

"Don't forget the rainbow."

"Could I ever?" The smile faded from his face as he realized just how close they were. Their bodies were pressed up against each other and he could feel her warmth even through their layers of clothing and their faces were so close that he could feel her breath lightly on his face. His eyes shot down to look at her full, plump lips as she absentmindedly licked them, before looking back up into her eyes. "Hazel..." He spoke softly, so quietly it was almost just a breath. "Can I kiss you?"

Just as quietly, she replied. " That's the thing about you, Uriel. You're so cautious about everything, you need to be more confident... Of course you can kiss me, you didn't even need to ask."

Smiling again, he leaned forward and gently brushed his lips against hers tentatively, feeling the softness that used to be so familiar to him. He kissed her softly, moving his lips against hers, and for a moment she kissed him back just like that too. Then, Hazel reached up and wrapped her arms around Uriel's neck, digging her fingers into the back of his neck, and deepening the kiss. She slipped her tongue into his mouth, and they began massaging each other's mouths with their tongues. It was a passionate kiss, one that got both of their hearts racing and caused their breathing to go erratic, and it was just like the kisses they shared all those years ago. Hazel smiled against Uriel's lips, simply thrilled to have him back in her life. The kiss ignited their love for each other to come back at full force and she didn't ever want it to end. She never wanted to let Uriel leave her life again and she knew that was a crazy thought to have on their first date but it was simply how she felt and she didn't think there was anything that was going to change that.

They broke off from the kiss at about the same time, resting their foreheads together and panting to get their breath back. Uriel lifted one of his hands and pressed it to Hazel's cheek, smiling warmly at her as he caressed the smooth skin of her cheek.

"Wow," he whispered. "That was just how I remember it being. Amazing."

"I know," she replied with her own smile. "I'm really glad that we found each other again, Uriel. I know that when you left, we said that we just had to keep hoping we'd have a future together, but I didn't think it would ever happen."

"Me either," he chuckled softly. "But this," he gave her a peck on the lips, "definitely gives me real hope."

"Definitely," she agreed, nodding, before leaning in and kissing him again.

* * *

**18th January 2013**

_It's too early in the morning to be working_, Victor thought to himself bitterly, sat in his office with a cup of steaming hot coffee. _This should be illegal._

It was actually ten am, which was rather a late start for him, but considering he had been up most of the night and barely had any sleep _and_ had a killer hangover, it definitely felt too early for him. All day yesterday Victor had had to listen to Uriel go on and on about his date with Hazel and how nervous he was; Victor had been so annoyed that he'd been so close to kicking Uriel out of his apartment. Uriel had said that he was finally moving out of his parents' house to get his own place, and had asked Victor if he could stay with him for a couple of weeks until he found his own place... That was three months ago.

Victor didn't care about Uriel's date but yet when he tried to fall asleep last night, he'd been unable to as he was too busy wondering how the stupid date was going. In the end, he'd gone to the pub down the road and drank himself into oblivion before stumbling back to the apartment at four am.

And what made things worse was that when he got to the FBI's building this morning, the whole department had been buzzing with the news that yesterday morning Hazel Clarrison had somehow managed to get Elliott Williamson released on bail. He didn't understand. The man was a freaking murderer and should be rotting in prison! Instead, he was at home in his flat on his own and wouldn't return here until the court case. It wasn't fair and it made Victor despise Hazel all that much more.

He looked up as Gary let himself into Victor's office as easily as if it was his own, and sat in the black leather chair on the other side of the desk. "Where's your brother? Don't you normally have him running errands for you when he's not in training?"

"Not in the mood to be showing him the ropes today," Victor shrugged. "I told Will to have the day off and that if he missed anything important to do with the case, I'd call him."

"Yeah, he's really invested in it. Growing up to be just like his brother," Gary grinned. "So, you heard that the lawyer got Elliott released on bail, I'm guessing?"

"Can't miss it when it's what everybody's talking about," Victor replied sharply. "How did she manage to do that? Hypnotize them?"

"I don't know, something about fingerprints not being enough evidence to keep him here. We've kept people in for a lot less than that so she must be a very persuasive woman when she needs to be. Man, she's good at her job, I'll give her that, but there's no way we are letting her win this case and set that psycho free."

"Amen to that," Victor mumbled. "So, I'm guessing that isn't all you wanted to tell me?"

"Nope. I know things didn't go too well when we talked to Daisy Williamson, but I think we should talk to the other daughter. Get there before the lawyer decides to."

"Gary, the other daughter in nine years old. She barely understands what's going on, I doubt she'll be able to tell us anything."

He shook his head. "No, no, not Poppy," he waved a hand in the air for emphasis. "Remember how Elliott said that he had an older daughter, one that didn't get along with Mrs Williamson so she moved out of town to live with Elliott's sister? Well, he lied."

Victor sat forward in his seat, immediately interested. "What do you mean 'he lied'?" He was quick to ask.

"I did some research," Gary replied with a smug expression on his face. "It was difficult because she's under eighteen so her records were kept private. Sixteen year old Bluebell Williamson was admitted to a rehabilitation centre in Denver last year. She's still there. I didn't manage to find out why she's there, but I saw that her mother visits her at least twice a week. Elliott used to visit her nearly every day before he became a crazy murderer, so maybe her parents told her a lot more than we know about the situation. It's worth a try."

"Okay then, " Victor nodded. "Call the rehab place, tell them we'll be coming to visit Bluebell tomorrow. They'll have to get Mrs Williamson to confirm it because she's under eighteen, but I doubt her mother wouldn't let us visit. Make sure that nobody else knows about this apart from me and you. I don't want this getting back to Hazel Clarrison and her getting there before we do, like she did with Daisy. I'll tell Will that he can come too, he'll hate being left out of it."

"Fair enough. I'll keep it secret. You know, everyone here is talking about how we're not doing our job properly and how we're losing our 'magic touch' by letting the lawyers beat us in a case considering that's never happened before. They're losing faith in us."

"Well they need to shut up," Victor snapped. "We haven't lost the case yet and I'm not planning on letting that happen. We'll talk to Bluebell tomorrow and hopefully she'll have some good information for us. We need to end this case quickly and get Elliott back in prison."

"I'm with you there," Gary agreed.


	6. Chapter 6

**19th January 2013**

Rosewood Rehabilitation Centre in Denver was actually a very nice looking place and not at all what Victor had imagined. The building was a brick structure with gardens surrounding it, gardens that were blooming with trees and flowers and birdhouses. Inside was just as nice, with the brightly coloured walls and the soft furniture. It wasn't sterile like you would except a rehab centre to be, but it was homey and warm. Victor imagined that it was a relaxing place and knew that if he ever had problems, he would want to come here for help as it just had a general nice feeling to it.

Victor, Will and Gary were told that Bluebell Williamson was sat outside and one of the staff members - a twenty odd year old man with red hair and green eyes - introduced himself as Dean and said that he would lead them over to Bluebell.

As they walked through the gardens out back, Victor was struck by how normal everything seemed. People were either sat on their own, in a group, or with a member a staff, and they all seemed calm and collected, not troubled at all. "Blue's a quiet girl," Dean said to them as they walked, "which is a nice change to the loud and demanding teenagers we get a lot of. She's very helpful though, loves to help us clean up and is always looking after some of the young children we have staying here, so I'm sure she'll tell you anything that you need to know."

"Does she get many visitors?" Will asked. "I'm guessing it'd be pretty lonely if she didn't."

Dean sighed and shrugged his shoulders once. "Her dad used to visit every day, her mum every now and then. But since her dad went to prison, she's had one visitor and that was her younger sister, Daisy. I've seen Blue's mum on a few of her visits and I can tell she's not comfortable here, it must be really hard for her to have a daughter in here. Some parents just can't handle it. Anyway, I don't think Blue's lonely. Like I said, she looks after the children a lot and she's very sociable most of the time. Although she's rather... Moody. Unpredictable. So just be careful. We don't want a repeat of what happened when a social worker came by to tell her that Elliott had been arrested."

"What happened?" Gary asked nosily.

"Blue screamed the place down," Dean chuckled. "She was furious and upset, you know? Can't say I blame her. She smashed the windows in her bedroom and hit one of the staff when she tried to calm Blue down."

"We'll be careful," Victor promised.

Dean stopped walking and pointed ahead of him. "Well, there she is. Just tell her who you are, she's been expecting you." He smiled and turned around to walk away.

As the three men approached Bluebell - or Blue as it seemed she was called the most - Victor studied her profile. She was sat under a wooden garden shelter that had ivy and roses twining around the structure and there were two cushioned benches, one of which Blue was sat on. She looked tiny and rather fragile, barefoot and wearing only grey skinny jeans a purple long-sleeved t-shirt. She had sickly pale skin and blonde hair which was scraped back into a messy bun and she was sat with her knees to her chest and her arms around her legs as she stared off into space.

Blue looked up as the men sat on the bench opposite hers, her light blue eyes looking at each of them in turn but she didn't say a word.

Victor, who was sat in the middle of Will and Gary, smiled warmly at her and spoke first. "Hi, Blue. I'm Agent Victor Benedict, this is Agent Gary Allen, and this is my brother, Will, who is an Agent in training. We were told that you knew we were coming?"

"Yeah, I knew," she said in a flat voice. "It's obviously about my dad. Why should I tell you anything? Are you on his side?"

Victor paused a moment before saying, "we're on the side of the law."

Blue smiled a little, a smile that was a little crooked. "That's a good answer," she said. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, we talked to your sister, Daisy. She believes that your father is innocent, that he didn't kill the Fletcher family. That's all we've gotten from her, she refuses to tell us anything and is siding with your dad's lawyer... Do you believe your dad is innocent, like your sister does?"

Blue pursed her lips before sighing and shrugging her left shoulder. "I don't know what to believe anymore, if I'm being honest. My dad used to be my best friend, I told him everything and he told me everything. I didn't think he ever had it in him to hurt anybody, he's a big softie. But I know things, things that make me think that maybe my dad lost it and did kill that family. I don't want to believe that, but I can't help but come up with those conclusions."

Will, who had always been such a gentle soul in Victor's opinion, and who was always kind-hearted towards others, leaned forwards and softly said, "this must be really hard on you. I know that I wouldn't want to ever believe my dad capable of murder either but if the evidence was pointing that way... I'd start to consider it and that would kill me. Blue, we don't like seeing people go to prison, that's a hard part of our job. We do our best to make sure that doesn't happen, but we also do our best to make sure that the right people get punished for what they've done. You understand that, right?" Blue nodded weakly. "So we need you to tell us what you know. Everything you know. Even if it makes your dad look bad."

Blue took a deep breath and didn't answer straight away, but Victor could see steel in her eyes and knew that she would tell them everything because she was probably one of those girls who always could tell what the right thing to do was and always did the right thing. She would tell them, she was just taking a moment to gather her thoughts together. Victor breathed a sigh of relief at this realization, glad that they would finally be getting some new information that would lead them closer to the case.

"Okay, okay." She finally spoke, nodding her head a few times before starting off, "well, I guess I'll start with my parents. They're both savants but they're not soulfinders so even though they loved each other, I could always tell they both wanted more. It wasn't nice because I knew that neither of them were completely happy and nobody wants to see their parents upset, you know? Anyway, some time last year I noticed that my mum was a lot happier. Like, really happier. She started singing to herself around the house and I've never noticed her do that before. I asked her why she was so happy and she said she just was, but then a month or so before the Fletcher family died, she told us all the truth."

"And what was that?" Gary asked quickly.

"David Fletcher, the father of the family? Him and my mum found out they were soulfinders and they started having an affair. Mum came clean and said that she was leaving my dad to be with David, and David was going to leave his wife a few weeks later after his son's sixth birthday. Dad was devastated. He wasn't truly happy with my mum but he still loved her. He didn't seem angry then, I guess he accepted that mum just wanted to be with her soulfinder. He was more upset than angry... But I guess that could have changed. That he could've gotten so angry from the betrayal that he..."

"Killed the Fletchers," Victor finished for her when she seemed unable to say the words. The affair was something he certainly hadn't been expecting and he understood exactly why Elliott hadn't told them: like Blue had said, if he was angry enough, maybe he had it in his power to kill his wife's lover and his family. He shook his head, wondering how Mrs Williamson and David Fletcher could have let the affair go on for so long. It would have hurt the family less if they'd come clean straight away, not snuck around in secrecy. This certainly made Elliott look even more guilty and Victor was glad Will was writing everything Blue said word for word so they didn't forget one bit of it. "Can you think of any other reasons your father may wanted to have hurt David and his family? Anything at all, even if it's small."

"Um, not exactly," Blue replied. "I mean, he told me about the promotion he wanted that was given to David instead. And he once mentioned that they went to the same school when they were younger and my dad had been dating some girl, but David basically took her away from my dad."

"So your mum isn't the first woman that Elliott's lost to David?" Victor raised his eyebrows. "Well, that..."

"Makes him look even more guilty, I know." Blue's face looked broken, like she hated the fact she was having this conversation and the whole thing was taking it's toll on her. She looked so tired and pale, so thin and weak, that Victor seriously worried about her. He wondered why a sixteen year old girl would be in a rehab centre and felt so sorry for her, knowing that she couldn't go to school anymore or simply hang out with her friends. He would have hated to be here when he was sixteen and would have hated it even more if he rarely ever had visitors. Despite what Dean had said, Victor could see in Blue's eyes that she was lonely and depressed, and that was quite a saddening thing to see. "There's no way he's ever going to be proved innocent, is there?"

_No_, Victor thought to himself. Out loud though, he said: "I wouldn't say never. Sometimes evidence piles up against a person until they lose hope, but then something comes along and they're proved innocent."

"Plus," Gary added, "your dad's lawyer, Hazel? She's a right tough cookie, seriously getting on our nerves."

Blue gave a little laugh which was actually more of a giggle and made her whole face light up. "So it's still not definite whether or not he'll go to prison?"

"Basically, yeah," Victor nodded. "Listen Blue, I just want to say thank you for helping us. I know it's probably not easy and I really admire you for telling us what you know. We'll do our very best to stay true to the law and make sure that the right things happens, okay?"

"Okay," Blue nodded in reply, looking at Victor as she spoke with that small crooked smile on her face again. "It wasn't that bad telling you what I know. It was the right thing to do and besides... I'm just thrilled to have visitors for once."

* * *

Victor entered his apartment, feeling tired and worn out after spending the rest of the day at the office after visiting Bluebell Williamson. He walked into the living room and stopped in his tracks when he saw the sight in front of him.

Sat on his black sofa as close as they could possibly be without sitting on each other, with their arms wrapped around each other and their eyes focused on some TV show on the flatscreen, were Uriel and Hazel. They looked up in unison when they noticed Victor stood there and Hazel grinned as she teased, "long day at work trying to prove an innocent man guilty? You look knackered, Benedict."

"Huh, nice one," he replied sarcastically. "Actually, it was quite a progressive day. I visited Elliott's oldest daughter, Blue. Got some pretty shocking information from her that is just more evidence against Elliott."

"Yeah, like what?" She returned.

"Mrs Williamson had an affair with David Fletcher," he said in a smug tone, waiting for the shock to cross Hazel's face.

But it didn't. She grinned even wider and said, "oh, I already knew that. Daisy told me. Remember this, Benedict: I will always be one step ahead of you."

"Yeah, in your dreams, Clarrison," Victor replied. "Even Elliott's oldest daughter, whom he used to visit every single day, isn't sure whether to believe if he's guilty or not. What does that say about Elliott, hmm? That his own daughter thinks he might be guilty?"

Hazel's eyes narrowed as she glared at him but before she could reply, Uriel butted in. "Jesus guys, will you stop it? Can't you at least try and get along, for my sake?"

"No," they answered at the same time.

Uriel sighed. "Well, that sucks. At least try and keep your thoughts and opinions to yourselves while I'm around, okay? I don't want to have to constantly hear you two bickering like children. Just be quiet."

"Whatever, man," Victor sighed tiredly. "I'm heading to bed anyway. No more arguing for tonight."

"Hey Vick, Hazel's staying for the night, that okay? It's just that it's ten now and it's getting pretty dark, it'd be dangerous for her to walk back to her hotel," Uriel said. Victor was going to suggest Uriel driving her back to the hotel, but then he quickly realized the real reason Hazel was staying the night and felt like gagging.

"Whatever," he said again. "Just keep the noise down, okay?"

"We'll try our best but we can't promise anything," Hazel said with a shrug of the shoulders.

"Oh, shut up," he snapped before heading down the corridor that led to his bedroom.

"Goodnight, Benedict!" He heard Hazel call out. He rolled his eyes instead of answering, wondering how on earth Uriel could put up with her as a girlfriend, she was just so _infuriating_!

* * *

_Author's note: This might end up being a long A/N so I doubt anybody will read it but oh well._

_First off, don't forget the character Blue! She's going to be the main character of the third story in my series, the one I'll write after this! :-)_

_I've actually planned out all of the stories in my series as sad as that sounds. I just had all the ideas in my mind and knew that I had to quickly write them down before I forgot. Numerous times on this site I've thought of a name/storyline/power for a Finding Sky fanfic and before I've written them someone else has magically come up with the same idea and it's just so annoying, haha. But now that I've planned it all out, I'm not going to change anything, even if someone else ends up using that idea for their own story because they've come up with it themselves, haha._

_Anyway, as a little spoiler for my future stories, these are the names I'll be using in order of who I'll be writing about first, then second, etc. Not saying which guy they'll end up with though, you'll just have to wait and see! ;) :_

_Bluebell Williamson, Persephone Carter, Ireland Hawk, Jessamine Maxwell and Vivienne Buchanan :D _

_Well that's if I get around to writing a story for all 7 Benedict's, we'll have to see how it goes, haha._

_So I was just wondering what you all think: Do you think Elliot Williamson is innocent or guilty? Do you trust Hazel's power that says he's innocent, or Victor's logic which has never failed him before as we all know how amazing he is at his job? Just curious. Nobody will answer probably but whatever._

_Please leave reviews, whether they are good or full of constructive criticism, I appreciate them all!_

_Charlotte xo_


	7. Chapter 7

_Author's note: Ok, so I'm aware this chapter isn't the best and it's not very exciting, but practically everything in this chapter is relevant and important and means something in future chapters! So this chapter was kind of needed for that, despite it being quite boring in my opinion._

_Your reviews are all fantastic and I love reading each and every single one of them. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review letting me know what you think, it honestly means so much to me. _Los2005_ mentioned that she found the previous chapter a bit fast paced which I didn't realise I had done but I promise I'll try and be more aware of that and try my best not to do it._

_I don't want to sound like I'm begging, but please leave reviews to let me know what you thought of this chapter, even if it's saying something bad. Bad comments help me develop and good comments inspire me to write the next chapter quicker, so please :D_

_Just one last thing, sorry for making this a long A/N again: Next week I'm doing work experience and because my college course is Animal Care, I'm spending the week working at a farm so I'll be working really hard during the day from 9 till 4, plus it takes me over an hour and two buses to get there and another two to get home, so I will be knackered by the time I get home so I don't think I'll be able to write a new chapter. I'll try to, but no promises. I might not be able to update until the week after next, sorry! xo_

* * *

**20th January 2013**

At seven in the morning, Victor stumbled his way to the kitchen whilst rubbing his eyes to try and wake himself up more. He'd had just a few hours sleep last night which wasn't completely surprising to him as he had had trouble sleeping for at least a year now much to his dismay, and couldn't even remember the last time he had a good night's sleep.

_Thank God for coffee_, he thought to himself as he entered the kitchen, his eyes finally wide and aware. He looked up and suddenly stopped in his tracks. He'd completely forgotten that Hazel had stayed the night and there she was, stood in the kitchen with her back to him. Her hair was in soft curls to her shoulders and she was dressed only in a male's black shirt that reached to the top of her thighs, revealing her long shapely legs. Victor gulped, flushing at the sight of so much of her flesh, and was immediately very self-conscious that he was only in his boxers.

Hazel turned around with a mug in her hand and jumped when she saw Victor stood there. "Jesus, you scared the life out of me! Could you at least announce your presence next time?" She snapped, leaning back against the counter.

"If I have anything to do with it, there won't be a next time," he fumed. "I don't want to get into the habit of seeing you every morning, so Uriel better hurry up and find his own place."

Hazel raised her eyebrows and stated, "well, someone's extra moody in the mornings. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed, Benedict?"

"Shut up. Is there any coffee left in the pot?"

"Yeah," she replied, moving to the side so he could step into her place and pour himself a mug of coffee. He turned back around, leaning back against the counter and taking a sip of the hot drink. "Look," Hazel said from beside him. "I don't like you and you don't like me. But Uriel was right last night. We shouldn't be bickering around him, it's obviously going to hurt him to see his brother and his girlfriend constantly arguing. And I don't want to be the reason you two fall out or anything. Uriel is... He's important to me and I plan to be in his life for a while now, which means that by default I'll be in your life too. We should at least try and get along, even if we are in a huge disagreement and against each other in this case."

Victor was silent for a moment, pondering this. He knew that Hazel was right, as much as he hated to admit it, and he knew that things around here would be a lot more pleasant if they weren't at each other's throats constantly. But there was one thing that was nagging at his mind and he had to confront her about it.

"I'm worried that you're going to end up hurting Uriel," he admitted. "You're both savants, but you're clearly not soulfinders. That's always going to be in both of your minds, you'll always know that there is someone out there that's absolutely perfect for you. How do I know you're not going to leave Uriel to find that other person?"

"I love him," she said simply with a shrug of the shoulders. "I want to be with him for as long as possible. I can't even imagine living without him again, he'll always be enough for me."

"You've only just got back together," Victor pointed out. "How can it be so serious so quickly?"

Hazel smiled up at him. "Because we know how we feel about each other and we've felt this way for years now. Of course we both wonder about our soulfinders, but we're both happy and satisfied with each other. It's not like we're giving up, we're just noticing that maybe you don't need your soulfinder to be madly in love with someone and want to spend the rest of your life with them. We've stopped praying for that one person to come along."

"But what if your soulfinder does come along?" Victor pressed. "Would you choose him over Uriel? Because if you did, that would break my brother. And I can't let you do that, he doesn't deserve to be hurt."

"You think I don't know that?" She returned. "Uriel has always been such a gentle, kind young man and I don't think anybody could say he deserved to have his heart broken. If some bizarre miracle happened and my soulfinder turned up, honestly... I don't know what I would do, Benedict. And I don't want to think about it because I love Uriel and it's as easy at that." She paused for a moment before the smile appeared on her face again. "This is the first time you've actually done something that has made me like you just a little bit."

"What have I done?" He asked, confused.

"You're looking out for your brother," she explained herself. "It's clear that he's very important to you and I think it's sweet that you care so much. I promise that I have no intentions of hurting him."

"Good," Victor nodded. "That's that settled then... Wow. I think we just went five minutes without arguing. _That_ is a bizarre miracle."

Hazel laughed, a lovely sound that made Victor smile. "You've got that right. Maybe we can get along, for Uriel's sake."

"We can try anyway," he agreed. "By the way... Why are you wearing my shirt?"

Hazel's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion and she replied, "this is Uriel's shirt. It was in his wardrobe."

"Well, he must have borrowed it from me then. But that is definitely my shirt that you're wearing; Uriel doesn't own even one black shirt," Victor chuckled. "Doesn't matter anyway, I have plenty of others."

"Bet you do," she remarked. "You're the type of person that I doubt has any colours other than black and white in his wardrobe."

"I don't have a wardrobe, Clarrison," Victor said snarkily. "I have drawers instead."

"Oh, ha-ha," she rolled her eyes. "I'm going to get ready for work."

"Don't bother, you're wasting your time," he called out as she walked away. "You might as well just give up now."

"In your dreams, Benedict!" She shouted once she'd left the kitchen and disappeared from sight. "You're only saying that because you're getting worried now that I will win."

Victor shook his head in disbelief, a small smile still on his face. It was clear that he and Hazel would still argue and clash a lot, especially over work, but he was glad that they had at least agreed to try and start getting along a little better. For them, that was a monumental step, even if it was going to take a while for them to become friends, and although he still disliked Hazel, he couldn't say that he didn't see how infatuated with her his brother was and he knew that when Hazel said she loved Uriel she was telling the truth.

It was a strange concept to him to think of even trying to be friends with Hazel but he knew that if the roles were reversed, Uriel would try for Victor's sake. Uriel had always been the one brother the others always knew would be kind, truthful, reliable and loyal. Yves was a lot like that too but he could also be very unpredictable with his anger and his power so it was fair to say that none of the Benedicts were quite like Uriel; he was one of a kind.

With his mug still in his hand, Victor headed out of the kitchen to get a shower and get dressed for work. Passing Uriel's bedroom, he heard a flirty feminine giggle followed by Hazel saying, "I'm trying to get ready for work, stop it," and he frowned.

Victor realised he was jealous. He wasn't jealous of the fact Uriel had Hazel, not really, it was more that he was jealous of the relationship they had. He envied his brother for having a girlfriend that loved him so dearly, he envied the fact that Uriel had someone to wake up next to in the morning and somebody to fool around with like teenagers.

_Please Fate_, he silently prayed. _Please let me find my soulfinder soon._

He felt stupid for thinking that, but he couldn't deny that he had put all the strength of his heart into that one thought. With a sigh, he stepped into the bathroom and locked the door behind him, trying to shake off depressing thoughts of the fact he was single and his brother was as loved up as he had always wanted to be himself.

* * *

Making sure the door was shut and latched behind him, Uriel walked further into the gorilla enclosure at the zoo. Five gorillas lived in this enclosure, and they were Uriel's favourite animals in the zoo by far, with the big cats coming a close second. In his hand was a bucket that was full of bamboo, willow and maple trimmings that he began to spread out around the enclosure in different locations.

The dominant gorilla of the group was the only one that made its way to the new food, whilst the other four stayed away. Through the glass to the large enclosure, Uriel could see a group of young schoolchildren - perhaps about nine or ten years old - along with their teacher looking through, excited by the sight of the youngest gorilla making its way towards the glass.

One of the children waving caught Uriel's eye and he looked to see that it was his niece, Gracie. Grinning, he waved back before turning to leave the enclosure. He quickly locked the door behind him and headed around the corner to the class of children and leant down to give Gracie a hug after she exclaimed, "uncle Uriel!"

"Gracie, who's that?" The teacher asked sternly, protective of her student. She was a short, chubby woman with grey hair and red glasses, her lips pursed and eyes narrowed as she looked at the stranger that was hugging one of her students.

"I'm Gracie's uncle, ma'am," Uriel replied as he untangled himself from Gracie and stood up straight. "I work here. I thought I'd come by and say hello."

After a pause she said, "well you do look like her dad. I guess saying hello is fine." She turned to talk to some of the other students but kept glancing over at the two Benedicts to make sure Gracie was okay and not being kidnapped or anything horrific like that.

"I didn't know you were having a school trip here today," Uriel said to Gracie. "You should have told me, I might have been able to get some special treatment for you all."

"Oh it's fine!" Gracie responded with an excited grin wide on her face. "Uncle Uriel, I love this place! I think I liked the fish best, we saw loads of them, even some dolphins and a baby whale! I'm going to ask my mum and dad to bring me here again, it's so fun! I think I want to work here when I'm older, do you think I'd be able to? I'd love to work with the fish."

Uriel nodded, a proud smile on his face at the fact that his niece wanted to work with animals just like he did. "Of course you could," he beamed. "I'm glad you're enjoying yourself."

"My friend's not though," she pouted. "She's really sad."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"She said that she misses her dad, but I don't know where he is. And she said that her big sister isn't living with them anymore either and she misses her as well. She's called Poppy Williamson, she's my best friend but I don't like seeing her sad. What do I do, uncle Uriel?"

Uriel's eyes widened at hearing the surname Williamson. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was the youngest daughter of Elliott Williamson, and Uriel felt a pang of pity for the nine year old girl who was clearly affected by what was going on around her and her family.

"I guess," he said slowly, "that you just try and take her mind off it. Maybe have her over to your house one night, I'm sure your mum wouldn't mind."

"A sleepover? Oh, that would be so fun!" Gracie gushed. "I have to tell Poppy." She looked around her, frowning when she didn't see her friend straight away. "Oh, there she is. I wonder who that is that she's talking to."

Uriel looked over to where Gracie was looking. A young girl with plaited blonde hair, dressed in a blue coat over her school uniform, was talking to a man. The man had dark hair that was pulled into a low ponytail and fell all down his back, and was dressed in a black vest top and jeans. Both his arms and his neck were covered in tattoos and he had several facial piercings and a light shadow of stubble.

Unlike his brother Will and his dad, Uriel didn't have the savant power of being able to sense danger, but anybody could surmise that the man talking to Poppy was dangerous. Uriel wasn't judging him from his appearance, he knew not to do that, but the fact of the matter was that the man was just giving off a menacing vibe. Not only that, but Uriel recognised him and knew that he had seen him somewhere else before, but for the life of him he could not figure out where. He worried for Poppy, just a nine year old girl who was sad from family problems and just might have it in her to trust a stranger, and knew that if he did have the same power as Will and did have a 'spidey sense' for danger as Will put it, his alarms would be going off like crazy looking at this man.

He looked back at the teacher and waited until she looked over at him to check on Gracie, holding her eyes when she did so before gesturing his head towards Poppy and the man with a grim expression on his face. The teacher looked over curiously, before frowning. "Poppy!" She bellowed. "Come back on over here, we're moving on in a minute."

Poppy said one last thing to the man before skipping back over to the class, coming to stand near Gracie.

Uriel kept his eyes on the man. The man had pulled his phone out whilst Poppy skipped away but he now looked up from his phone and met Uriel's eyes with his dark pair and glared unblinking for a long moment before turning and walking away as swiftly and quickly as he could.

Uriel realized that his heart was pounding in his chest and his hands were shaking and he knew that it was because he knew deep down that this man was trouble. Was it a coincidence that a dangerous man had been talking to the daughter of a suspected murderer? Growing up in a savant family, Uriel had always been told to never believe in coincidences.

He pulled out his phone, knowing that he needed to tell somebody about this as it might be very important to the Williamson/Fletcher case. The problem was: who should he call first? It would mean having to choose a side, to choose between two people close to him. He planned on telling them both, but whoever he told first would be the one that would have the most time to react and do something about the information, to get ahead of the other. He knew that he had to make a choice fast: Victor or Hazel?


	8. Chapter 8

**20th January 2013**

Hazel hadn't been expecting to get a phone call from Victor Benedict asking for her to go to the savant building as he had information on the case, especially considering they were going against each other in the case so she never thought he'd want to help her, but that was exactly what happened as she finished her lunch in her hotel room.

Curious as to what could be so important that Victor needed her, Hazel had left as soon as she could and drove there quickly in her rental car. The woman she'd met on her first day there, Katherine Clarke, directed her to the same floor she had before, this time telling her to go into the side room and not the interrogation room connected to it.

Another thing she hadn't been expecting to see was Uriel in the room with two of his brothers. "What's going on?" She asked straight away as she let the door swing shut behind her into Katherine's face. Her eyes slid over to look at Uriel. "Uriel?"

Uriel walked over to her and gave her a gentle peck on the lips before saying, "thanks for coming. We kind of need your help with something, love."

With raised eyebrows, Hazel looked at Victor. "You need my help with something? _You_? I would have thought that I'd be the last person you'd ask for help in this case. I'm honoured, Benedict."

"And so you should be," he returned cockily. "But trust me, I didn't want to call you. It was Uriel's idea and it was the only one we had. Look through the window."

Interested, Hazel stepped past Uriel to look through the window/mirror and into the room connected. She recognised Daisy Williamson first, and guessed that the other two blondes - one a little girl, and one a woman - were Daisy's sister and mother. Poppy was sat in between the older two, tears streaming down her face whilst her mother tried to comfort her, whispering soft words into her ear. Daisy slouched in her chair, looking bored and frowning at her younger sister as if she were annoyed with her.

"The Williamson's," Hazel said matter-of-factly. "What are they doing here?"

"Earlier today I was working at the zoo. My niece's class were on a school trip there and Poppy's in that class," Uriel explained. "I saw Poppy talking to some stranger, a man. I just got a bad feeling about him, he looked like trouble, so we wanted to ask Poppy what she knows. But she's only nine so she doesn't see the importance of this, and she's too scared that she's in trouble to tell us anything."

"That's where you come in," Will added. "She's scared of Victor and he's the only one out of us three qualified to talk to her. We think that she might talk to you, seeing as you're a woman and look more friendlier than Vick," he chuckled. "Plus, Daisy trusts you so Poppy might tell you something if Daisy tells her to."

Hazel narrowed her eyes. She fully understood why they had called her in and agreed that she had more of a chance of getting the truth out of Poppy but there were a few things that were nagging at her mind. She looked at Uriel. "Why didn't you call me earlier, as soon as you saw Poppy with the man? Were you even planning on telling me?"

Uriel went bright red and grimaced guiltily. Lifting a hand to nervously run his fingers through his hair, he answered, "well yeah, I was going to. I just told Vick first, you know, 'cause he's my brother. I'm sorry, Hazel."

Hazel sighed and shook her head. "It's fine," she said slowly. "If I had to choose between you and my brother, I'd pick my brother. Family first and all that. Even if George does annoy the hell out of me. So, what's in this for me?"

"Ah, always thinking about how this affects yourself, aren't you?" Victor said with a roll of his eyes. "But to answer your selfish question: we have no idea. We don't even know if this man has anything to do with the case. But if he does, it might prove that Elliott's guilty. Or it might prove that he's innocent. We don't know which way it could go but there's a chance it'll help you win the case."

Hazel smiled and replied, "well then, I suppose I better go in. Have you got a CCTV image of the man? You could identify him from that."

"Already got some people working on it," Victor nodded. "Now, remember to just ask Poppy to tell you the truth about everything, even if she doesn't think it's important. I'm sure a nine year old could understand that."

"Don't worry, she can't lie to me."

He rolled his eyes again. "You are full of yourself, aren't you?"

"Yeah," she nodded with a sarcastic smile drawn on her face. "I really am. But she literally cannot lie to me, it's my power. Just let me do this my way, okay?"

She turned around and left the side room before knocking on the door of the interrogation room and entering. Inside, Mrs Williamson and her two daughters fell silent, looking up at the new person in the room curiously as she closed the door and took a seat in front of them.

"Hey Daisy, it's nice to see you again," she said a welcome with a warm smile.

"Hi," Daisy replied quietly, shifting in her seat.

Hazel found this strange. The last time she had seen Daisy, she hadn't seemed nervous or fidgety. Maybe it was because of the environment, but Hazel had a feeling that it was something else. She wanted to ask Daisy what was wrong but reminded herself that she was here for Poppy so begrudgingly, she looked away and at the youngest girl.

"Hello Poppy," she said in a sweet voice she reserved for children. "My name is Hazel, I'm your dad's lawyer. That means I want to help him get out of prison and come home to you. You want that, don't you?" Poppy nodded silently. "And I'm sure that you'd love to help in any way you can."

"Yeah, I do!" Poppy exclaimed, nodding her head again. "I want daddy home."

"That's brilliant," Hazel grinned. "Now, I know that Agent Benedict came in here to ask you a few questions and you didn't want to tell him anything."

"He was scary," Poppy admitted.

"Yeah, he can be a little scary, can't he?" Hazel smiled softly. "I agree with you there. Him and I don't get along very well and I have to admit that he sometimes scares me when we get angry at each other. His face is terrifying, isn't it?!"

Poppy giggled, relaxing more into her seat and letting go of her mother. "A little," she whispered before giggling again. "I'm not sure if I want to tell you anything either though, I'm scared of getting in trouble."

"Poppy, how many times do we have to tell you?" Daisy interrupted, sounding fed up with being here. "You're not in trouble. They just want to know who that man you were talking to is and see if he has anything to do with dad. You can tell Hazel, I trust her. You should too, she wants dad to come home and not go to prison."

"But I'm scared," Poppy said, fresh tears in her eyes and her lip trembling.

Thinking quickly, Hazel spoke up. "Poppy, you know like you're a savant and you have powers? Well I do too. My power is that when I touch your skin, I can make you tell me the truth about anything I ask you about. You won't even realise that you're saying it until afterwards, so you have nothing to be scared of. It won't hurt at all, I promise you. Do you think you can let me do that?"

Poppy hesitated for a moment in which she looked up at her mother with wide eyes; her mother nodded to her reassuringly in return. Poppy looked back at Hazel and nodded as she said, "okay. What do I do?"

"Just give me your hand." Poppy reached across the table with her left hand and Hazel clasped it in both of her own gently, centering and calming herself so she was able to bring forth her power from the back of her mind. It was like a bright, hot light that she could always see and feel; when she needed to use it, she mentally pulled it towards herself and expanded it, picturing it falling around her and Poppy like a bubble and mentally connecting them. Hazel's eyes shone bright golden around the iris, the colour she imagined her gift being, and Poppy's body went straight and stiff, now under Hazel's control.

"Okay, Poppy," Hazel said delicately but confidently. "I want us to talk about the man you spoke to at the zoo. Have you ever seen him before or was that the first time?"

"I've seen him before," the little girl replied in a flat, monotone voice.

"Where?"

"Two days before that bomb went off that everyone was talking about. Me and dad had just been to see Blue and then we went shopping. I saw Jon following us around the store and then his car followed dad's car home. I told dad and he told me that I was probably just imagining it."

"Jon?" Hazel picked up. "That's his name?"

"Yes, he told me at the zoo."

"Was that the first time you spoke to him?"

"Yes," Poppy answered. "I saw him looking at me and then he waved me over."

"What did he say to you Poppy? Did he mention your dad or the bomb?" Hazel asked insistently.

"He told me that his name was Jon and that he wanted to be my friend. He said that he was sorry to hear about my dad and that he knew my dad didn't do it but I wasn't to tell anybody. He said that I'd get hurt if I ever told anybody that he knew something about the bomb. He made me promise not to tell. That's all I know about him."

"Okay, Poppy. Thank you for helping, I think we have everything we need now." She let go of Poppy's hand and the little girl sagged back into her seat, her body shaking. "Poppy, are you okay?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm still scared. What if Jon tries to hurt me now that I've told you?"

"He won't find out," Daisy said to her sister.

"You don't know that!"

"Poppy." Hazel got the girl's attention again. "Do you remember Agent Benedict, the one we were saying is scary?" Poppy nodded and Hazel smiled. "Well, you might think that he's scary, and he is a little bit, but he's also a very good man. His first name is Victor and he's great at his job, one of the best agents around in fact. You see, Victor might look scary at times but he's a nice person and if I ask him to get somebody that works for him to protect you, then he'll do it."

"Protect me?"

"Yes," she nodded. "They can put you under the witness protection programme. You'll have somebody protecting you at all times, nobody will hurt you. Not even Jon."

"Agent Benedict would do that for me?"

"Of course. Does that make you feel a little bit safer now?"

"I guess," Poppy smiled. "Thank you, Hazel."

* * *

Victor, Uriel and Will left the side room and waited out in the corridor for a minute whilst Hazel said goodbye to the Williamson's before joining them in the corridor and shutting the door to the interrogation room behind her.

"Thanks for all the kind words about me, Clarrison," Victor joked. Truthfully, he had felt proud and happy when he heard Hazel talking about him like that. He didn't know why, but he felt like her approval and opinion of him was important so as much as he was pretending he found her words amusing, he actually cared quite a lot.

"Shut it, Benedict," Hazel replied. "Don't let it get to your head, I still think you're an arrogant bastard. You can get protection for the Williamson's, can't you?"

"Sure," he nodded, joking around now gone and his seriousness about his job taking over again. "So. What do you think about this Jon guy then?"

"Well I'm hoping that this means Elliott's innocent and Jon's the one that set off the bomb and framed Elliott," Hazel said. "That would be the best thing for everybody involved, especially Elliott's three daughters."

"I agree there," Victor nodded. "But honestly, I don't think that's what this is. Maybe Jon helped Elliott with the bomb, or maybe it's something else entirely that we haven't even thought of yet. We can't just jump to conclusions."

"Well yeah, I know that," Hazel rolled her eyes. "I just said that's what I was _hoping_ for. Really, we need to find out who Jon is and where he is."

"I've got people working on it, I already told you that," Victor said not harshly. "Did you give them your number? Seems like you're easier for them to talk to than I am, so they should have your number in case anything happens."

"Done it," she nodded.

"Aw, look at you two: working together," Will said in a teasing tone. "Maybe we'd solve this case a lot quicker if you two were working together towards the same outcome."

They both fell silent for a moment. Victor didn't say anything because earlier in the side room, as he watched Hazel talking to Poppy, he had been awed by how easily she got shy little Poppy to speak to her, even without using her power. Hazel was just good with people and obviously amazing at her job, and Victor had also thought of the possibility of them working together on the case. Surely with the both of them putting all of their effort into the case, it would be solved quicker. But there was just one problem, a problem that Hazel mentioned matter-of-factly.

"That's impossible when he wants to put Elliott in prison and I want him to go home to his daughters," she said.

"I want that too," Victor argued with determination. "But I work from evidence and the evidence points to Elliott. I'm just following the law. We could easily still work together even if we both believe in different things, we'll just be going against each other in court, that's all."

"That's a good point," Uriel said, turning to look at Hazel. "If you're working together, you won't argue as much. What do you say, Hazel?"

Victor watched as Hazel stared into Uriel's hopeful eyes before sighing and looking at Victor. "Fine. Let's work together, but at court... Bring it on."

Victor simply grinned in response.


	9. Chapter 9

_Wow, this took me so long to write! The longest chapter I've written so far, for sure. I put so much effort into this chapter._

_If you haven't already, check out my new Finding Sky story: Repeating History. It's a Zed story, but is in no way connected to Safe & Sound or Love & War._

_Hope you like this chapter, please leave reviews! xo_

* * *

**23rd January 2013**

Sat waiting and surrounded by his family, Uriel knew that this was a day he wouldn't ever forget, mainly for the emotions rushing through his body at that moment. Excitement, happiness, relief, anticipation, nervousness and fear were all making their presence known to him and he was getting a terrible headache from feeling so many feelings at once.

From where he was sat on the top step of the patio in his parents' back garden, he looked out at his family: Zed was leaning against the fence, looking out at the empty fields that separated their house and the woods; Yves was sat on the grass, leaning against the fence, with his head immersed in a John Green book; Will and Xavier were running around with Gracie, any excuse for them to act like children and get away with it; Trace was sat on the grass behind Georgie with his arms around her waist and his hands resting on her small bump, looking over her shoulder as she flicked through a catalogue book selling various baby things; Saul was stood at the BBQ seeing to the food with Karla hovering around him, the two still looking like lovestruck teenagers; Victor was sat on one of the outdoor table's chairs, also looking out aimlessly at the family, seemingly lost in his thoughts with a blank expression on his face.

Enjoying the rare sunshine, the family looked picture perfect. It was like they had no troubles whatsoever, no worries and nothing nagging at their minds. And Uriel knew that they probably didn't, not at that moment anyway. Yes, the family had been through a lot - even young Gracie still had nightmares torturing her from the kidnapping fiasco last year - but when they were all together and spending the time having fun and not working, all the problems just melted away, at least for that one day. And Uriel liked knowing that. He liked knowing that spending time with his family could be a release from the bad things in life; he liked knowing that they could always make everything better.

And now he had Hazel to make things better as well. It seemed like everything was finally coming together and he had decided that it was about time Hazel met the rest of the family, having already met Victor and Will through work.

And that's where the assortment of feelings was coming from: Hazel meeting his family. Of course he wanted her to meet them, it was important to him that she did, but he was scared of his family's reaction. He kept on telling himself that his family were all lovely people and that they would accept Hazel if she made him happy, but at the end of the day they all knew that she wasn't his soulfinder and so therefore wasn't technically "the one" for him. He was terrified they wouldn't accept her because of this; he didn't want to lose her, and he didn't want to fall out with his family over this. Deep down, he knew this was just irrational fear as his family just wanted him to be happy, but he couldn't just brush those other feelings away to the back of his mind.

A buzzing in his pocket brought him out of his thoughts and he pulled his mobile out, reading that he had one new text from Hazel: _'I'm outside the front door.x'_

Letting out a nervous, shaky sigh, Uriel pulled himself to his feet and went through the patio doors, then the house, and to the front door, taking off the latch and opening it.

Hazel stood on the doorstep, grinning at him. Her hair was yet again in it's natural curls to her shoulders like it usually was these days, and she was wearing a strapless floral print jumpsuit that cut off mid-thigh, showing off her long legs. White wedges were on her feet, matching the colour of the headband she was wearing. Uriel was always struck by her beauty every time that he saw her and could not believe that she was his girlfriend, as cliché as that sounds.

"Hey!" She said cheerily. "I knocked on the door, but nobody answered."

"Oh, we're all out back, we didn't hear it," he said, letting her in and closing the door behind her. He put a hand on her waist and leant down to give her a long, sweet kiss, knowing that he might not be able to kiss her for a while as he wouldn't feel comfortable kissing her in front of his family, he just wasn't that kind of person.

"Mmm, hello," she mumbled as their lips parted. "What was that for?"

"For being brave enough to meet my family," he joked. "Come on."

Linking his fingers through hers first, Uriel led Hazel through the house and onto the patio. They stood looking out at the back garden and Uriel noted that all of his family were as exactly as they had been before he'd answered the door, Karla being the only one looking at them with wide, ecstatic eyes. Uriel guessed that this was his family's way of giving him a moment alone with Hazel before they all bombarded her with questions to get to know her.

He started to point out each family member, telling Hazel their name to introduce her to them. "... And you already know Victor and Will," he finished after a long few minutes.

"I have no idea how I'm going to remember everybody's names," Hazel laughed. "So, that's your mum?"

"Yeah," he nodded as she pointed in Karla's direction; his mum had her back to the couple now, saying something to Saul. "She'll probably be the one that asks you the most questions, she rarely ever gets to meet our girlfriends so she always gets kind of... Crazy, when she does."

"Crazy? That's not a nice way to talk about your own mum, Uriel," she replied before striding away from him, in the direction of his parents with a confident walk.

Eyes wide, Uriel quickly followed after her, silently thinking that she had no idea what she was getting herself into. As they reached Saul and Karla, the older two turned around, Karla with an unsure look on her face and Saul with a friendly smile.

"Mr and Mrs Benedict," Hazel said, holding her hand out to shake both of theirs. "I'm Hazel Clarrison. It's great to finally meet you both, Uriel has told me so much about you already."

"Really?" Saul raised his eyebrows. "Well, you're the first person he's told about us then," he joked with a laugh. "But he's definitely told us about you. Please, call us Saul and Karla. It's a pleasure to meet you, Hazel."

Hazel beamed a smile before turning to Karla. "This is a lovely place you have here, Karla. It reminds me of the house I grew up in, my mum also loved to put family photos all over the walls. She said it made the place seem more like home, more of a family environment."

Karla smiled but it wasn't her usual huge smile - Uriel knew this smile to mean that she wanted to like Hazel, but she was still cautious over the fact she wasn't Uriel's soulfinder; Karla had told Uriel yesterday that she wasn't too keen on him dating a savant that wasn't his soulfinder as it might ruin things with his soulfinder if he ever did meet her.

"Thank you," Karla replied to Hazel with kindness in her eyes and expression. "You talked of your mum in the past tense then. Does she not do that anymore?"

Hazel paused awkwardly for a moment. "Oh. No, uhm. My parents died about two years ago, they were involved in a big thing with the net and were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Oh, dear! I am so sorry to hear that, love."

"Oh, it's fine," Hazel smiled again. "I don't mind talking about it anymore, I've moved on like my parents would want me to... Karla, Saul, can I be honest with you?"

Uriel watched a confused look appear on both of his parents' faces before Saul nodded and said, "of course you can. What's wrong?"

"Well, I just wanted to say that I know you probably think Uriel and I won't last very long," Hazel spoke clearly, with determination. "And I understand if you don't like me that much because you're just looking out for your son, any parent would do the same thing. I just wanted to assure you that Uriel is really important to me; I have no intentions of ever hurting him or breaking his heart. I can't promise that I won't leave him if my soulfinder comes along, but he can't promise that to me either. I can promise though that I'm happy with your son, I'm not going to go looking for my soulfinder because Uriel's enough for me. I guess I'm just saying all of this because I know relationships can be much more complicated for savants and I don't want you to have the wrong impression of me or think that it's certain Uriel will be hurt. Because I don't want him to be hurt either; that's the last thing I want."

Uriel was stunned into silence. He and Hazel had talked about this in private a few times, but never in a million years did he imagine that she would say it to his parents, nor had he ever heard her say it in those exact words. A shy, but thrilled, smile slowly spread across his face at the knowledge of her being so in love with him that she didn't mind telling it to his parents. He flicked his eyes away from Hazel and at his parents. Saul was smiling at both Uriel and Hazel, pride and happiness evident on his face. Karla however, wasn't showing any emotion on her face.

After what felt like a long moment but could have only been a few short seconds, a tear slowly ran down her cheek and her usual huge smile, the one that always lit up her face and made her look younger than she was, appeared on her face and she all but threw herself at Hazel, wrapping her arms around in a tight hug.

"Oh, you wonderful girl!" She crooned, clinging onto Hazel strongly even though she was so small, and Hazel tall, that she didn't even reach Hazel's shoulders. "Thank you, thank you."

"Aw, you're welcome!" Hazel replied, gently wrapping her arms around Karla to return the hug. "But what for?"

Karla laughed and finally pulled apart from Hazel, looking up at the younger girl before speaking. "For making Uriel so happy. As soon as you said that he was enough for you, I believed that you don't want to intentionally hurt him. Welcome to the family, Hazel. Come on, I'll introduce you to everybody."

As Karla began to drag her away, Hazel looked back at Uriel and grinned at him. He returned the grin, more pleased than he could ever be to see his mother accepting his girlfriend into the family. If Karla did, he knew the rest of the family would too, and he couldn't have been happier.

* * *

"So, what's the difference between what you do and what Vick does?" Zed asked. He had joined Uriel and Hazel at the patio table and all three of them were now nibbling on some of the snacks that Karla had left out, as well as some of the meat Saul had been cooking on the BBQ.

Hazel took a moment to think about it, thinking of the best way to describe it to a sixteen year old. "Well, I'm a savant lawyer, whereas Victor is an FBI agent. I don't go on shootouts and missions, things like that. I'm more of a behind-the-scenes kind of girl, the one that deals with the criminals after they've been caught if I believe they have a chance of not going to prison."

"But Victor's doing that, in a way," Zed pointed out. "Except he's trying to put Elliott Williamson into prison, not the other way around."

"Well yeah, exactly," Hazel nodded before taking a sip of her cola. "Victor works on finding evidence to put the person in jail, whereas I work on finding evidence to prove they're innocent. Our jobs are the opposite to each other, but they're a lot similar in a few ways as well, which is how we're now able to work together on the evidence."

"That makes sense," Zed replied. "Who does the most good then?"

"Well I guess that depends on the way you look at it. I think it's fairly equal. The criminals that deserve to go to jail do, because of Victor. And those that are innocent but don't have anybody else believing that they do, don't go to prison. Because of me. I only take on cases where I fully believe that the person is innocent. I'm not the type of lawyer to let a guilty man go free. Why do you ask, anyway?"

Zed blushed. It was an odd look on him, Hazel thought, considering her first impression of him was that he was intimidating and scary for a teenager. He shifted in his seat before admitting, "well, I think I'd kind of like to be a lawyer. Mum and dad expect me to become an agent like Vick and Will, or a cop like Trace, but I don't want to do that. But I still want to use my powers to help people and I like the sound of what you do, it sounds like something I could do. I don't know... It's embarrassing."

"Zed, it's not embarrassing," Hazel said gently, smiling at the teen that looked so much like all of his older brothers it was uncanny. "Don't have a career that you're only doing because your parents want you to. Do what _you_ want to. I think it's great that you want to be a lawyer. I mean, there's loads of ordinary lawyers these days but not many lawyers that deal mainly only with savants like I do."

"I think you'd be a great lawyer, Zed," Uriel joined the conversation. "You're stubborn enough, anyway."

"Shut up," Zed laughed and threw a tomato at his brother. "Thanks, Hazel," he smiled at her, more at ease with the conversation now after his brother's teasing.

The scraping of a chair being pulled back made Hazel jump and she looked away from Zed and at Victor as he sat down across from her. "Hey, sorry to interrupt," Victor said. "I just needed a quiet place to return a phone call. Plus, I thought I'd put it on speaker for Hazel in case it's anything important; I'm guessing it's about the case."

"Oh right," Hazel said. "Who is it?"

"Bluebell Williamson," he replied. "Elliott's oldest daughter. She didn't leave a message, but she wouldn't phone if it wasn't important."

"Bluebell Williamson?" Zed asked, scrunching his eyebrows together. "Why does that name sound familiar? Wait. Did I go to school with her?"

"Yeah, you did," Victor answered his brother with a nod.

"Oh yeah, I remember now!" Zed exclaimed. "I had quite a few classes with her, I think. She didn't have any friends as far as I know, she was always on her own and eating whenever I saw her. She was a big girl."

"Well, she's not anymore," Victor replied.

"She moved out of town, didn't she?" Zed asked.

"That was the story. She's actually in a rehabilitation centre in Denver."

"What, really?" Zed raised his eyebrows. "What for?"

"I didn't ask and I'm not going to. Don't tell anybody about this," Victor said sternly, glaring at his brother. "She's a nice girl, she doesn't need your whole school gossiping about her being in rehab. I mean it, Zed."

"Okay, okay, jeez! I won't tell anybody, I promise."

"Good." Victor pulled his phone out from his pocket and dialled a number, putting the phone on speaker so the table could all hear the ringing.

"Hello?" Came a delicate and young female voice as the phone was picked up.

"Blue? It's Agent Benedict, I was just returning your call," Victor said.

"Oh. Right. Agent Benedict, hey. I'm sorry for phoning you if you were busy."

"No, don't worry about it. I wasn't busy, I just didn't hear my phone ring," Victor reassured her. "Why did you phone, Blue? Is everything okay?"

There was a pause before the girl answered in a nervous-sounding voice. "My sister phoned and told me what happened with Poppy. I think... I think I know the man that Poppy was talking to at the zoo. You gave me your card before you left and told me to call if I remembered anything else. I think I know the man and I know that he's a savant like me, I know his power. If he is who I think then... It's bad, Agent Benedict. Really bad."

Victor looked up at Hazel and their eyes met; both looked scared, but also happy that they were getting some new information about 'Jon'. Victor was the first to look away. "Okay," he said into the phone. "Thanks a lot, Blue. I'm with my family today but I'll come down to see you tomorrow and you can tell me everything you know then. It'll be safer in person, alright?"

"Okay," Blue replied. "See you tomorrow."

She hung up and the line went dead. "Wow," Uriel was the first to speak. "Looks like the case is about to be developed."

"Yeah," Hazel said. "Thank God, we needed something to come our way soon. I'm going to get some water, okay?"

Uriel nodded in acknowledgement and Hazel stood up, heading into the house and the kitchen. After filling a glass with tap water, she stood looking out of the window and at the Benedict family. She remembered how her, her brother George, and her parents used to spend summer days in the back garden with a BBQ going just like the Benedict's were today and she felt a pang of sadness knowing she could never have that with her family again. She cherished those memories and wished she could experience them with her parents again, even if it was only one time, but knew that she couldn't. That thought broke her heart.

"What are you thinking about?" A deep voice asked from behind her.

With a hand on her chest, Hazel spun around quickly, somehow not spilling her water. "God, Victor! That's the second time you've scared me in a kitchen, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Victor smirked and pressed his lips together as if trying to stop himself from laughing. "Sorry, sorry," he said in a voice that clearly said he _wasn't_ sorry.

"What do you want?" She snapped.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to come with me to speak to Blue tomorrow," he said. "You know, seeing as we're working together now and all that."

"Fine, yeah sure, sounds good."

"What were you thinking about before I made you jump?" He asked curiously. "You looked upset." To stop from having to answer, Hazel started gulping down her glass of water. "Hazel?"

_"It's nothing to do with you,"_ she bitterly said, using telepathy as she finished off the water.

Looking back up at Victor, she was confused when she saw his expression. He looked - there was no other way to describe it - absolutely horrified. His eyes were wide and staring at her, his mouth trembling and his face pale. If he hadn't been slowly shaking his head, Hazel might have thought he had gone into some frozen state of shock.

"What? What is it?" She asked him quickly.

Victor gulped and replied in a quiet, tortured voice. "Y-y.. You.. You're.. You're my soulfinder, Hazel."


	10. Chapter 10

**23rd January 2013**

For a long moment, Hazel didn't speak. Didn't move or blink. She barely even breathed. The words _"you're my soulfinder"_ said in the deep and husky voice that was Victor's voice, kept repeating in her mind over and over again, like an endless... Dream? Nightmare? It should have been a dream, realising she had found her soulfinder, that's what everybody else said it would feel like.

But it didn't. She didn't want her soulfinder! She was happy with her life, she didn't need him to come along and ruin everything. This was _Victor Benedict_, for crying out loud. She didn't even like him that much, how could they be destined to be together? It wasn't right, nor fair.

She slowly shook her head and, looking at Victor, finally spoke, her voice strangled and broken. "No. No, you're lying. That can't be right."

"Well it is," Victor snapped angrily. "You think I'd lie about something like this?"

"But I don't want this! I didn't want my soulfinder to come along!" She argued, trying not to raise her voice too loudly in case someone in the family overheard. That would definitely not be good.

Victor let out a short laugh, shaking his head before speaking in the same tone that she had. "And you think I want this?! I wanted to meet my soulfinder and know that she was amazing and perfect, and that we could be together for the rest of our lives. That's not what I'm feeling between you and I right now, and I don't think I ever will. I barely even like you, for crying out loud."

"Yeah, well, the feeling's mutual," she snapped. Breathing heavily, she looked at Victor in disbelief still. This just didn't feel real, things like this just didn't happen in real life, did they? Except it was happening to them right now and it terrified her. All of those perfect stories she'd heard about soulfinders... And now this was just proof that it was all mostly lies. Growing up, her mother had always told her that it was possible for her to fall in love with other people, but once she had met her soulfinder, that was it. She wouldn't be able to stay with another without always wondering _what if?_ She told Hazel that soulfinders were destiny, fate, written in the stars; there was no avoiding that, no matter the circumstances in which they had met.

Hazel wondered what Meredith would have said if she could hear about 'the Victor situation'. Hazel didn't even like Victor, frankly he sometimes scared her and he always seemed so serious and boring, and she didn't think she could ever be happy with somebody like that. Uriel on the other hand...

"I love Uriel," she said softly to Victor. "I've loved him for years, even when I thought I would never see him again. And now we're back together and I... I don't want to ruin that. I don't want to hurt him," her voice shook slightly, tears threatening to spill but she managed to hold them back. "This isn't fair! As soon as I'm happy, something comes along and spoils it... I don't mean this to sound harsh, but I could never imagine myself with you, Victor. Uriel's the one I want to be with."

This time it was Victor that didn't speak for a long moment. He simply looked at Hazel, his face expressionless, not giving anything away. He was quiet when he spoke, his words clear and pronounced, as if he were being very careful with what he said. "I know that, Hazel. I know that you'll always pick him over me, and I'm okay with that because I don't want to be with you either. I wish we weren't soulfinders. It just complicates everything.

"Uriel's happy with you, happier than I've ever seen him before in my entire life, and that's no exaggeration. What kind of brother would I be to take that away from him for myself? It'd be selfish and I could never forgive myself for hurting him so badly when he doesn't deserve it."

"So... What are you saying?"

Victor let out a long and loud sigh, his eyes and expression still not giving away any hint as to his real feelings. "I'm saying that I just want my brother to be happy. And you make him happy. So despite the fact we're soulfinders, I want you to be with him. You don't want to be with me; I don't want to be with you. So why should things between you and Uriel end? We'll just have to figure out how to forget about us, and we can't tell anybody. And if you break his heart..."

"I won't," she answered quickly. "I won't. I feel the same as you, Benedict: I just want to see him happy."

Victor nodded. "Then we're in an agreement. We forget that we're soulfinders and you stay with Uriel."

Hazel nodded too and before she could say anything else, Uriel popped his head around the doorframe of the kitchen, grinning. "What are you two talking about?"

"Just.. Just work," Hazel smiled at him. "Boring stuff."

"Well I don't want to hear about it then," Uriel joked, his eyes twinkling with humour. He was so beautiful it made Hazel want to cry. "Hazel, if we're going to make it for the film in time, we need to set off now."

"Right, of course, yeah," she replied, having completely forgotten their plans for the cinemas. She looked up at Victor again and asked, "we still up for seeing Bluebell Williamson tomorrow, Benedict?"

"Absolutely," Victor nodded. "I'll pick you up from the hotel at 1."

"Okay," she faked a smile and walked out of the kitchen, Uriel following behind her. "Wait, I need to say goodbye to your family."

"There's no time," Uriel answered as he opened the front door and ushered her outside. "I told them you said goodbye. They loved meeting you, by the way."

"Good," she smiled. She turned around so she was facing him and looked into his eyes. "Uriel. You know that I love you, right?"

"Of course. I love you too. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she kissed him. "I was just making sure."

* * *

Depressed, vacant, lonely, cowardly, insecure.

Five words that, in Victor's opinion, perfectly described how he felt that night. Sat at the bar in the pub, he finished his beer and gestured for the bartender to fill it up again. So many thoughts had been whizzing around in his head since this afternoon and he decided that the only solution was to get drunk and drink away his misery. So far it wasn't working.

All his life - especially in the most recent years - he had dreamt of finding his soulfinder and living happily ever after with her. He had never had a picture in his mind of what she would look like, or an idea of what her personality would be like, just that she would love him as he loved her and there would be no complications to stop that love. They would rescue each other from desolate lives and create a new life, together; a life that would be perfect, nothing but happiness involved. It was cliché and cheesy, he was fully aware of that, but it was everything he had ever wanted. Secretly, he was a big soft romantic and had just been waiting for the right girl to show that to.

Truthfully, he hadn't been fond of Hazel when he first met her. Sure, he thought that she was attractive - he wasn't blind to that stuff - but that had been the only interest he'd had in her because she had seemed arrogant, cocky and... Trouble. He'd clashed with her instantly, but after a while he found himself liking that she was trouble. It was fun and she kept him on his toes. She intrigued him, like a mystery, and he found himself wanting to know everything about her.

But of course he kept all of this to himself, especially considering there was still a large part of him that highly disliked her.

But he had been lying to Hazel when he said that he didn't want to be with her. Partly, anyway. A part of him meant that, he really didn't want to be with her. But another part... Well, it wanted to give her a chance. They were soulfinders, shouldn't they at least try and see why fate seemed to think they belonged together? He could see himself falling in love with her, learning to get used to her attitude that was so similar to his own, learning how not to clash with her so much over every little thing. And he would be lying if he said that his heart hadn't hurt when Hazel had said she couldn't ever imagine herself with him.

But then his thoughts returned to Uriel and he felt guilty for even thinking about being with Hazel. Seeing them two together, he envied their happiness and ease around each other; he had always thought that they were just supposed to be together, despite not being soulfinders. He really did just want his brother to be happy - hell, he wanted them all to be happy and in love! He didn't even have to think twice about sacrificing his own chance at love for the sake of his brother.

"You look glum, sweetie," a flirty voice said from beside him. "Let me guess. Has your girlfriend just dumped you?"

He looked to the side to see a young woman with bleach blonde hair and bright red lipstick smiling at him. He didn't hide the fact that his eyes were roving over her body and she seemed to like that, her smile turning into a pleased grin. She was wearing a tight red dress that ended at the top of her thighs and by the looks of it the dress was one or two sizes too small, her breasts practically bursting out of the top.

He met her eyes again and smirked himself, turning the charm on. "Something like that," he answered coolly.

"Well, that's her loss, darling," the woman replied. "She clearly didn't understand how lucky she was to have somebody like you. Look, I don't usually do this... But why don't you let me make you feel better and forget her?"

Victor doubted that she didn't usually offer herself to guys in that way so soon after meeting them. He'd met girls like her before and _easy_ was the word that came to mind. But what the heck? It wasn't like he had a girlfriend to be faithful to, somebody he loved to enjoy himself with. This would just be a one night thing, a quickie, and he would probably never even see the girl again.

"That sure does sound tempting," he said in a long drawl, swigging back the last of his drink. "Your place or mine?"

The woman looked around, a devilish smile on her face. "Well, nobody's paying any attention to us... We could just do it in the bathroom, saves the taxi ride to a bed."

"Fine by me," Victor answered with a shrug, hating himself. He never did things like this. Well, he'd had one night stands before but had never been sleazy enough to go into a pub bathroom with a girl he didn't even know the name of, no matter how drunk he was, but maybe this was just what he needed to forget about Hazel and soulfinders.

Despite thinking this to himself repeatedly however, ten minutes later when he found himself in the bathroom with the woman, it didn't turn out as he had expected. After locking the bathroom door, they had immediately started making out, tongues and all. Their hands were all over each other's bodies and he was pressing her up against the sink counter... But when she put her hand down his pants, he suddenly stopped kissing her and pulled away, extracting himself from her hold.

"What's wrong?" She pouted, breathing erratic.

"I just... I can't do this," he shook his head. He thought of Hazel and what her opinion of him would be for doing something so dirty, and he couldn't go through with it. "I'm sorry. I need to go."

Without another word, he moved to unlock the door and left the bathroom, walking through the pub and ending up outside. He leant his back against the wall, taking deep breaths of the fresh air, his head dizzy from the alcohol and the encounter with the woman. Pulling his mobile out of his leather jacket's inside pocket, he dialled the first number that came to mind and waited until he heard the other end being picked up before he spoke.

"Dude, I need you to come and pick me up. I... I just can't be alone right now."


	11. Chapter 11

**24th January 2013**

In their bed, the couple were both fast asleep and dreaming happy dreams. They were holding onto each other, their legs tangled together, choosing to squeeze themselves into the middle of the king size bed instead of stretching out and actually using the whole bed. It was as if even in their sleep they needed to know that the other one was there. It was early hours of the morning, having just gone past midnight, but both of the couple were woken up by the shrill ringing of a mobile phone.

Grumbling, they both sat up, Georgie rubbing her eyes to wake herself up more as Trace leaned over to turn on the lamp on his bedside table. He picked his phone up and, seeing that it was his brother, looked at his wife and simply rolled his eyes. It wasn't the first time a family member had phoned at this hour, but still it was rare that they did.

Answering the phone, he grumpily said, "what, Vick? You do know what time it is, don't you? God."

He heard a deep breath being took on the end of the line, before the husky tone of his brother's voice said, "dude, I need you to come and pick me up. I... I just can't be alone right now."

Trace sat up straighter in the bed, causing Georgie to move close to him again. She put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in to hear the phone conversation. "Vick, what's wrong?" Trace asked, concerned. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the pub, you know the one we usually go to?" Came the reply. "Please, Trace. Please."

Hearing his younger brother pleading with him was not something Trace heard every day. Being the oldest in the family, he was the one that the other boys usually turned to if they needed any help and it had always been that way - he was the oldest and therefore it was his responsibility to look after them. He quickly told Victor that he'd set off in a moment before hanging up.

"Trace, you need your sleep," Georgie said softly, stroking his bare back with her hand. "This case you're dealing with at work has been taking a lot out of you, I know it has. You need to sleep. Victor's a grown man, he can take care of himself, can't he?"

"I know, but you couldn't properly hear him. You know what Victor's like, he rarely ever asks for help, he hates doing so. He sounded like a mess, G. I need to help him," Trace sighed. "Is it okay if I bring him back here and let him sleep on the sofa? I'd much rather he be here than at home alone. I mean, Uriel might be there but... I just feel like I should be the one to look after him."

Georgie smiled and gave him a gentle kiss on the lips. "I understand, baby. Yeah, bring him back here. I hope he finds his soulfinder soon... He's starting to slip, isn't he? He needs her."

Trace nodded, sad for his brother. "Zed's the same." He stroked Georgie's cheek, smiling. "I'm so lucky that you came back to me."

"I know," she teased. "Go on, go and get your brother."

Still half asleep really, Trace forced himself to let go of his soulfinder and dragged himself out of bed, pulling on the first clothes that he found before heading downstairs as quietly as he could so as not to wake Gracie. Thankfully, he knew the way to the pub easily as it was their regular so it wasn't that hard to drive there even when his mind still felt like it was asleep.

Arriving at the pub, he pulled up to the kerb and parked the car. Looking through the front mirror, he tried to spot Victor. He saw two women smoking and a group of men just leaving before he finally saw Victor, stood with his back against the wall and his head tilted to the sky. His eyes were closed and he looked to be taking deep breaths.

Worried for his brother's state of mind, Trace got out of the car and slammed the door shut, making sure to lock it. He was only going to be a little distance away from it, but you never knew when somebody was going to try and steal a car; he was a policeman, he should know. "Vick?" He called out as he approached him. "Bro?"

Victor looked at Trace and grinned. "Trace! You came, oh you're just an awesome brother."

Trace frowned. "Are you drunk?" He got his answer when Victor took a step towards him and stumbled. Trace quickly moved to put an arm around Victor and helped him get to the car. It wasn't until they both had their seatbelts on and he started driving again that he next spoke. "Victor, tell me what's going on. It's not like you to get yourself this drunk when you're working on a big case. Talk to me, bro."

Victor sighed loudly, over-exaggerating almost. "Nothing for you to worry about. You have Georgie, Gracie and the new baby on the way. You have no troubles or worries, your life is perfect."

"Well it's not perfect, but it's similar to that," Trace agreed with a nod. "But that doesn't matter. We're talking about you, Victor. Not me."

Usually, Victor was always thoughtful before he spoke but tonight, being drunk, he blurted out his answer without a second thought. "There's this girl I like."

"Ah, when is it not about a girl?" Trace chuckled. "So, what's going on then?"

"Doesn't matter," Victor shook his head. "She has a boyfriend. He's a great guy, doesn't deserve to be hurt. And she knows that... She's choosing him over me. She always will, she practically said so herself."

Trace paused. "Well that, um..." He cleared his throat. "That sucks. Still no reason to get yourself into such a mess though, is it? Plus, I guess this just means she's not the one for you. Things will be different when you meet your soulfinder, you'll see. She won't be able to choose anybody over you."

Victor laughed. It was a fake, ironic laugh that made him sound slightly manic and maybe even depressed. "Yeah, I doubt that," he said. "I really doubt that."

Trace didn't know how to reply to that.

* * *

Victor woke up on the sofa in Trace and Georgie's living room to the feel of something poking his chest repeatedly. Blinking his eyes open while his head pounded with a hangover, he looked up to his niece looking down at him. She stopped poking him when she realised he was awake and grinned, revealing the dimples she'd inherited from her mother. "Uncle Victor, you're awake! You didn't tell me you were sleeping over."

"It was... Unplanned," he answered, sitting up and pressing a hand to his head as he moaned in pain.

"Mum made you breakfast," Gracie continued. "It's in the kitchen, she told me to wake you up and tell you."

"Oh okay, thanks," he smiled at her. "Hey, it's Thursday, isn't it? Why aren't you at school young lady?"

"It's the holidays, silly!" She laughed.

"Ah, well that's okay then," he chuckled and stood up. He walked into the kitchen with Gracie following after him. He sat down at the table and his eyes widened when he saw a fully cooked English breakfast waiting for him along with a glass of orange juice. He looked up at Georgie who was stood reading a book with a cup of tea in her hand. "This is great, Georgie. Thanks. You're the best."

"Best hangover cure around," she smiled. "You're welcome."

"Listen, I'm sorry about last night and making Trace come and pick me up," he sighed and took a bite of eggs. "I should probably apologize to him, and thank him. Where he is? Today's his day off, right?"

Georgie put the book down on the counter and sighed. "It's supposed to be, yeah. They called him in though so he had to go. They're working him too hard, and he's just letting them. There's that promotion he wants available soon, plus he's trying to get as much extra money as he can for when the baby arrives, even though I'm still working as well so we're definitely making enough money."

"Well, you know Trace," Victor replied after another bite of his food. "He's always felt like he has to be responsible for everything. You're his family, he wants to give you everything you want and need; he wants to provide for you, he's always been that type of man. If you ask me, it's a good thing, Georgie."

"I know it is, he's just so exhausted," she sighed. "Gracie, come on, eat your breakfast so we can pick some clothes out for today."

Gracie nodded at her mother and started eating her cereal. "Going anywhere special?" Victor asked.

"Gracie's first skiing lesson," Georgie grinned. "Your mum and Zed are going to show her the ropes. Plus, I'm sure I'll need help, I haven't been on the slopes since I left Wrickenridge all those years ago. Trace was supposed to come with us too but..." she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders.

"Will you come too, Uncle Victor?" Gracie asked excitedly. "It'd be so much fun!"

He smiled apologetically at her. "I'd love to, but I have to work. Another time though, I promise, okay?"

"Okay," she smiled. "Were you sad last night? Is that why you stayed here?"

"Gracie, it's nothing to do with you," Georgie said sternly. "Let Victor eat his breakfast."

Victor smiled at Gracie and shrugged. "Gotta do what your mum says, kid."

He tucked into his breakfast whilst Gracie ate her cereal and after a moment or so, Georgie excused herself so she could go and get changed out of her pyjamas. Victor found himself wondering what it would be like to come downstairs in the morning to a pregnant wife and a daughter, to a happy family all of his own. He envied that Trace could have this every day, but he wasn't bitter about it as he knew how long his brother had waited for Georgie to come back to him. It was quite a romantic story actually, the one about the boy who waited. The boy who didn't even look at another girl after his soulfinder was taken away from him, maybe to be never seen again. He'd kept on hoping, and his prayers had been answered. And now he had what Victor one day wanted.

Maybe he could still have that, he thought to himself. Maybe he didn't need his soulfinder to be happy. Maybe he could find somebody else, somebody that he would instantly fall in love with and be with without any complications like her already dating somebody.

He felt his phone vibrate in his jeans' pocket and pulled it out to see that he had a new text from Uriel. It read:

_How come you didn't come home last night, eh? Dirty stopout ;) You don't need to pick Hazel up from the hotel, she stayed at ours last night. Come home whenever, she'll wait for you here. See you soon._

"Fucking hell," Victor mumbled loudly as thoughts of Uriel and Hazel being together whilst he drowned his misery with alcohol swirled around in his mind. Who was he kidding? He couldn't see himself ever getting past this to the point he could start looking for somebody else.

He looked up to see Gracie staring at him with wide eyes and only then realised what he said.

"Forget I said that," he said to her. "Don't ever repeat it, okay? Swearing's bad. Don't swear. Ever."


	12. Chapter 12

**24th January 2013**

Hazel giggled as Uriel hip-bumped her out of the way to do the washing up after they had finished breakfast. "Okay, what's going on?" Uriel asked, turning around to lean against the sink to look at Hazel who was now sat on the counter. "You're giggling. That's what sweet girls do and you're not a sweet girl... Last night proved that," he winked.

She stuck her tongue out him playfully and laughed. "You're such a loser! I'm just in a good mood, is that not allowed?"

He moved forward and stepped between her legs, placing his hands on her thighs and leaning in close to her, close enough that they could feel each other's breaths on their own lips. "Of course it is," he mumbled, his eyes riveted on her plump lips. "You should always be in a good mood, that's all I want for you."

In return, Hazel smiled. She wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her ankles together, and wrapped her arms around his neck to tangle her fingers in his hair. Uriel loved the feeling of being so close to her, he didn't think it got any better, really. Everything was so simple, calm and _safe_ with her. Last night he had fallen asleep with his chest to Hazel's back and his arms wrapped around her, being able to feel her body warmth and every breath she took as her chest rose and fell. He knew it was common for people to say this but it was the only phrase that came to his mind: his life seemed perfect right now. He was doing well with his studies, loved his volunteering job, and had Hazel as his girlfriend... What more could he ask for? He leaned in and pressed his lips against Hazel's, gently kissing her. She opened her mouth to allow his tongue entrance, but still, just like he most often did, he kept the kiss soft and gentle and sweet. He smiled into the kiss, his hands lightly holding her waist.

The kiss didn't last long however as they were interrupted by somebody clearing their throat loudly. They broke away from each other and looked to the kitchen doorway where they saw Victor stood there, his clothes rumpled, hair messy, and a frozen expression on his face to hide his emotions; it was an expression he had conquered about a few years ago and in the past year it was the only expression the family ever saw on his face apart from those rare occasions he was genuinely happy. Uriel felt Hazel tense up and quickly let go of him, so he stepped away from her, presuming she just didn't like to be caught in a situation like that.

"Morning," Uriel said cheerily to his brother with a wide grin on his face. "I noticed you didn't come home last night. I take it you met somebody at the pub and went back to theirs?"

Victor grinned. It didn't reach his eyes, but at least it was some semblance of emotion. "Yeah, some blonde chick. Why do you think I didn't take the time to send you a text saying I wouldn't be home? She kept me busy all night."

Suddenly, Hazel jumped down from the counter and looked at Uriel. "I'm gonna get a shower," she said before quickly walking out of the kitchen, not even glancing up at Victor as she passed him and making sure she slid around him without touching him.

"Yeah me too," Victor nodded his head. Uriel and Victor both had their own en-suite bathroom thankfully, so they didn't have to deal with fighting for time in the bathroom in the morning. "Tell Hazel that we're leaving for the rehab centre in an hour. I'm driving."

He turned around and disappeared from the doorway, leaving Uriel alone. He went over to the sink again to finish doing the washing up, hoping that Hazel would hurry up in his bathroom so that he could get a shower himself and head off to work at the zoo. This was the first job he'd had in his life - and there had been plenty considering he used to get jobs to escape from his family - that he actually looked forward to going to in the mornings, even if it was hard work cleaning out enclosures nearly every day. Recently though, he had found himself wanting the day to hurry up so that he could leave work, simply so that he could meet up with Hazel if she wasn't busy with work.

He was slightly envious that Victor would get to spend the day with her when he couldn't, but he understood that it was to do with work so he wasn't going to complain. He really had no idea who to side with in this case as he knew about Hazel's power but he also trusted his brother's judgement and he just hoped that they would manage to remain on good terms through it all instead of hating each other like they started out.

* * *

The tension in the air was so thick it felt like it could suffocate somebody, the silence between them so obvious that it was almost loud enough to give her a headache. Hazel pressed the button beside her to lower the window halfway down, breathing in the fresh air greedily before glancing to her right to look at Victor. He was driving steadily with his eyes on the road ahead, his hair tied back and his skin looking a more golden brown than usual in the sunlight glaring through the car windows.

"Did you really spend the night with a woman last night?" She blurted out, surprising herself as she hadn't even thought about asking that first.

She saw a muscle in Victor's jaw twitch before he answered in a blunt voice, his eyes remaining forward instead of looking at her. "I don't really think that has anything to do with you. Why do you care?"

She couldn't help thinking that he had a point. Why _did_ she care? Why was the thought of him having a one night stand with a random woman nagging at her mind, preventing her from thinking of anything else? She was with Uriel, not Victor; that was her choice and she stood by that choice because she loved Uriel. She really shouldn't care what Victor did in his free time, it didn't have anything to do with her, but still, the images of him with another woman wouldn't leave her alone. Frustrated with herself and not him, she sighed and shook her head. "Never mind. You're right. Nothing to do with me."

Looking forward, she saw Victor glance sideways at her out of the corner of her eye, before he too looked forward again. "I lied to Uriel," he said in a gentle voice. "Truth is, I went to the pub and got drunk. I ended up phoning Trace to come and pick me up and spent the night on his sofa. My niece woke me up by poking me in the chest and I had a killer hangover... In fact, my head is still pounding right now."

Hazel laughed and a moment later, Victor joined in. After that moment it was like the tension had eased between them and there was a much more pleasant vibe in the car and by the time they got to the rehabilitation centre in Denver, they were a lot more comfortable in each other's company; albeit, it was still a little awkward because of the whole soulfinder thing, but for now they could both survive the day together without any pointless arguments about mediocre things.

They signed into the visitor's book and were led to a room on the second floor. The bedroom wasn't what Hazel had been expecting- she'd been expecting a white room, plain and boring. The floor was linoleum and the walls were a clean white but had photographs of people and different locations pinned all over it. A bookcase was in one corner of the room, so full with books that a few were on the floor around it. A red suitcase was in another corner, open and with clothes spilling out of it. The bed was a single, the duvet dressed in a purple duvet and a selection of different coloured cushions, some sparkly and some fluffy, decorated the top end of the bed near the closed window in the room.

A thin blonde girl sat on the bed, leaning against the wall and reading a book- Hazel saw that the cover said "Divergent". She looked up as they entered and said, "oh, you're here." To the lady that led them to the bedroom, she said, "Joy, do you think you could get them a chair each please?"

"Sure, sweetie," the old lady said with a kind smile before leaving.

"Hey Blue," Victor said to the girl with a warm smile that reached his eyes. "Did you get the chocolate I sent you?"

"Yeah," she smiled timidly. "Thank you."

Hazel looked at Victor questioningly and he explained, "the first time I met Blue, she mentioned that she didn't get many visitors so I visited her again a few days later. She said that she missed chocolate so I sent some through the post for her."

"Oh. That was nice of you," Hazel smiled.

"Well I'm not always the cold, heartless guy you think I am," he teased with a grin. "Oh thank you, Joy," he added as the woman brought two plastic chairs in before leaving again. Victor and Hazel both sat down facing Blue and he was the first to speak. "Blue, this is Hazel Clarrison. She's a savant lawyer and we're working together on the case for now."

Blue smiled shyly; Hazel got the feeling that she was like this with everyone. The nosy side of her wanted to know why this girl was in a rehab centre of all places, but of course she didn't ask as she knew that was irrelevant to why they were here now and would have been completely rude to blurt out when they didn't even know each other. "Hey," Blue said in a quiet voice. "It's nice to meet you."

"You too, Blue. Obviously you know why we're here: the phone call. Whenever you're ready to talk about it, we're here to listen. You'll be helping us with this case a great deal. I'm your father's lawyer and I am convinced that he is innocent, so any information is helpful," Hazel said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Yeah, Daisy told me about you," Blue nodded. "She trusts you, so I guess I should too." She looked at Victor, who had got a notepad and pen out already to take notes. "Agent Benedict..."

"Like I've said before, please call me Victor."

"Victor," Blue smiled again, more confidently this time, her whole face lighting up with it. "Will this get my dad out of prison? I know that before I said that I thought there was a possibility he lost it and killed the Fletcher family because of the affair, but I was just upset and confused. My dad wouldn't kill anybody, I know it. I know the evidence says that he did, but he couldn't have. He as an alibi."

"An alibi?" Hazel was quick to ask, leaning forward in her seat eagerly and hoping Victor was writing all this down. "Your father said he was in his flat alone that night, that nobody could confirm it. Can you?"

Blue shook her head, a sad expression on her face. "Not that part, no. But I was thinking last night... Setting a bomb up would take time, wouldn't it? I went into the rehab's computer lab here and researched details on the bomb that exploded in the house- I read about it in the newspaper. It would have taken at least an hour to set it up properly, and that's not including breaking into the house and leaving time for the person to be able to get back out afterwards. My dad visited me that day, it was a late visit because he worked late, you see. He stayed for about an hour and a half- you can check in the visitor's book, and then including the time it took for him to get home... Well, I'm good at maths. I estimated that he would have arrived at his flat just half an hour before the bomb went off. Half an hour without any stops apart from traffic lights, that is. He didn't have the time to set up the bomb to kill them, it's impossible for him to have killed them."

"Blue, this is brilliant news!" Hazel exclaimed excitedly, a huge smile on her face. "I mean, it doesn't prove that your dad is absolutely not guilty because of his DNA on the bomb, but this will certainly work in his favour."

Whilst Blue sighed in relief, Victor asked, "Blue, what can you tell us about this man that talked to your youngest sister? She called him Jon. You said that you knew who he was and that it was 'really bad'."

Blue nodded. "He's called Jon, yeah. And he's..." She paused for a moment before gulping nervously and then continuing. "He's my biological dad. Jon Barker, he's called. He dated my mum in high school, but then they split up. Once my mum started dating my dad though, Jon got back in touch and mum had an affair. Yeah, David Fletcher wasn't the first affair she's had," she sounded bitterly- and rightly so. "Mum got pregnant with me and didn't know who the dad was. They did a DNA test and it proved that Jon was my dad but he wanted nothing to do with me so Elliott brought me up and stayed with my mum for my sake. In my eyes, _he's_ my dad, not Jon. My dad's a good guy, he wasn't just going to leave a baby that he'd already bonded with without a dad. Mum and dad moved away and I guess they thought that would be it but once a year Jon would turn up on my birthday with presents and a card. Dad never liked him but mum told me to call him Uncle Jon whenever I saw him; it used to confuse me because my 'uncle' was never allowed to meet my sisters and I didn't understand why when I was little. Shortly before the affair with David, I found out that mum had been in touch with Jon still my whole life but had kept it a secret from my dad. Jon never liked my dad, he always seemed really jealous when I met him and more than once I caught him nearly being violent towards my dad. His savant power is to control technology, any kind of technology... I'm guessing that includes bombs. Maybe he was jealous of David and my mum being together and he killed the family, framing my dad in the process. I don't know... But I don't trust him, I don't think he's a good guy."

Victor and Hazel left shortly after that and in the car Hazel noticed that Victor looked pissed off. "What's wrong?" She asked him. "We found out a lot today, Blue was really helpful."

"I know that," he snapped. "I'm just thinking how much more complicated this is now. Elliott Williamson was our only suspect and it was pretty certain that he was going to go down for this. I was convinced that he was guilty but now I'm not so sure... After today, we have two more suspects which makes this case even harder."

Instead of gloating that she was right about Elliott being innocent like she usually would, she refrained herself from doing so and instead pressed on, "two suspects?" She frowned in confusion. "Jon Barker and...?"

"Judith Williamson," Victor answered.

"Mrs Williamson? But why would she kill her own soulfinder and his family, framing her own husband whilst she did so?"

"How should I know? People do crazy things, I see it all the time. All I know is that she's known about Jon this whole time and hasn't said anything about knowing him, even when her nine year old daughter was being questioned about him. She acted completely oblivious. And if she has stayed in touch with him over the years, she probably knew he was here but didn't think to tell us that her ex boyfriend who has jealousy and anger problems may have used his savant power to set up a bomb. She's protecting him for some reason, and I want to know why. Of course, Jon is our main suspect other than Elliott so we need to find him but I still want to question Mrs Williamson. Maybe I'll even use my power on her if she refuses to co-operate," a grim smile spread across his face. "She won't be able to lie to me then."


	13. Chapter 13

**26th January 2013**

"Are you going back home to London once this case is over?"

It was just one question, asked by Uriel as he sat across from her in the café that morning. Just one small question with a yes or no answer, yet Hazel found herself pondering her answer whilst Uriel waited patiently. Shouldn't it be a simple answer? "No. No, I'm not going back because I want to stay here with you," is what she should be saying but she stopped before the words escaped from her lips.

The truth was, a large part of her wanted to go back to London. It was, and always had been, her home and she loved her little, cosy flat even if she never did stay there the whole year. Being a lawyer for savants had always been her dream job and she had worked hard to get here; she deserved to have this life that she loved. She got to travel the world and represent all sorts of clients in a range of different cases. Who would want to give up a job they'd always dreamed of having, a job that enabled them to travel the world and get a high pay check?

But this was _Uriel_. Uriel, whom she had already split up with once because of long-distance issues. Uriel, whom she had been in love with for years. Uriel, whom she had given up being with her soulfinder for. Why wouldn't she want to move to Wrickenridge permanently, settle down and buy a house with a white-picket fence and a large back garden, get married and start a family when it was Uriel involved? She could picture it all right now and knew that she would have a relaxed, pleasant life.

But she didn't think she would be happy. As much as she loved him and wanted to be with him, she didn't think she could be that person for him. She was fully aware of how selfish it seemed, but she didn't want to give up her dream job and move here just so that she could have a relationship with Uriel. She would always feel like there was something missing and that would stop her from being completely happy with her life. She couldn't see herself ever giving up her job for him and she hated that. She wished she was able to so that they could happily be together... But no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't even picture being happy after giving everything up for him.

She hated herself for it because she wanted him to be happy and she knew that her moving to Wrickenridge would make him happy. But she just couldn't do it.

Finally, she looked up and met Uriel's eyes but could only hold the stare for a second before guilt made her look down at her cappuccino. "Why do you ask?" She asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

She looked up again in time to see him roll his eyes and flash her a smile. "Isn't that obvious?" He chuckled. "I'm asking because I want to know. Because I don't want our relationship to end like that again. Because I want you to stay here. With me." His cheeks blushed a rosy red colour, his smile small and shy. Even after everything they'd been through together, he still got awkward and shy and embarrassed talking about commitment and how serious they were for each other. Hazel found it adorable.

She sighed. "Honestly, Uri... I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I'd love to stay here with you but I'd still like to travel a lot for my work and when I'm travelling, it's best to have London as my base, so to speak. It's easier that way. Plus, my brother and his wife and children are there, I wouldn't want to be on the other side of the world away from the only family I have left." Seeing his face fall, she was quick to continue. "I'm not saying that I won't move here with you eventually. Just right now, I don't think I'm ready for that. I'm sorry."

Uriel reached across the table to grasp one of her hands and smiled, shaking his head. "Don't apologize. We haven't even been back together for that long, you have every right not to be ready yet. Let's just make a promise right now that you and I, we're not going to split up because of distance again, okay? If you go back to London, we can stay in touch and visit each other. Or I could even come with you."

"I couldn't ask you to do that," she said gently. "You have your entire family over here, your job and your studies. It'd be more difficult for you to move."

"I don't care. Whatever I have to do to be with you, I'll do it, Hazel. That's how important you are to me."

"You're important to me as well," she smiled. "More than you'll ever know. Anyway," she cleared her throat and changed the subject so that she didn't start crying. "Shouldn't you be getting to work?"

"Yeah," he nodded. "We have a new girl starting today, Welsh apparently. I've been given the honours of showing her the ropes," he rolled his eyes. "Before I go though, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Hmm, what's that then?" She squeezed his hand.

"Well you know that I'm moving out of Vick's place tomorrow and into my new flat and I was wondering... Well, it'd be easier for you and cheaper because you wouldn't be paying for a hotel room... Plus, I'd really like you to be there."

Seeing him struggle with his words, she laughed. Having a feeling about what he was getting at, she finished his question for him. "You're wondering if I want to stay in your flat for the rest of my time here, aren't you?" He nodded sheepishly in response. "I'd love to, I really would."

* * *

Late afternoon, Victor left Hazel, Will and Gary in the side room as he entered the interrogation room to join the awaiting Judith Williamson. She looked up at him and frowned. "Why am I here?" She protested. "Nobody is telling me anything! I am sick and tired of all this waiting around."

"Don't worry Mrs Williamson," Victor said as he slid into the chair next to her. "You're going to find out why you're here very shortly. Now, before I start this interview, I need you to be aware that our conversation is being recorded and filmed, okay?"

"I understand," she nodded. "Now, are you going to tell me why I'm here, Agent Benedict?"

Instead of answering her question, he asked one of his own. "Mrs Williamson, you are married to the suspect, Elliott Williamson. But what was your relationship with the deceased, David Fletcher?"

Judith fidgeted in her seat and clasped her fingers together on the desk tightly. "He was my soulfinder," she answered, knowing that the FBI were all aware of the savant existence. "When we found out, we began to have an affair. I hated cheating on Elliott, but I stayed with him because of our three daughters. David and I were in love and we were planning on moving in together. I left Elliott and told him the whole truth of why. David was going to leave his wife but... He didn't have the chance to."

"Mrs Williamson, do you think that your husband would go to the lengths of murdering David and his family out of pain and jealousy?"

It took her a moment to answer but she eventually nodded. "I don't want to admit it, but yes, I do. I believe that Elliott killed David and his family. Elliott had been depressed ever since our eldest daughter began to have personal problems. He blamed himself for not being there enough for Blue and for not realising something was wrong sooner and... His depression just got worse when I asked him to move out. I think he wasn't in his right mind and I think he killed them."

Victor frowned. Her story sounded believable and her voice sounded like she was telling the truth but he still wasn't sure whether to trust her or not. _If only Hazel was in here using her power_, he thought to himself. _Judith would literally be unable to lie_. Despite having said that he would use his own power on her, he didn't want to- he hated using it and preferred to only use it when absolutely necessary or when asked to by his boss.

"Your youngest daughter, Poppy Williamson, was recently questioned over a man that approached her whilst she was on a school trip. We have identified the man as being Jon Barker. What is your relationship with him?"

Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion and she tilted her head to the left, pursing her lips. "Jon Barker? I don't think I know anybody by that name."

"Don't lie Mrs Williamson," Victor snapped harshly. "We know that you dated him in high school and then went on have an affair with him whilst you were dating Elliott Williamson. We also know that Jon Barker is the biological father of your eldest daughter, Bluebell. So, don't even think about lying to me again. Why didn't you tell us that you knew the guy that had spoken to Poppy?"

Mrs Williamson sighed. "I didn't know if it was him or not. I thought maybe... But I wasn't sure. Look, Jon's a good guy. He might come across as a rubbish father to Blue but that's because I told him to stay away, to let Elliott be her father. He wanted to be there for her and he stuck around, watching from a distance and all that, to make sure she was okay. I mean yeah, it sounds a little creepy but he's harmless. I knew that he'd be a suspect if I told you I knew him and I don't think he would kill David."

"Even if he was jealous and wanted you back?" Victor raised his eyebrows.

"What? No! Jon was never jealous of me being with David. Or Elliott, not in the past two years anyway."

"Why would your daughter Blue claim to have seen Jon being violent towards Elliott more than once then? And why wouldn't he be jealous?"

Judith looked taken aback to hear the implication that Victor had spoke to Blue but quickly recovered. "Isn't it obvious?" She asked. "Jon wants to be Blue's dad. When Blue was first born, I didn't think Jon would be a good dad- he was a tough guy and wasn't ready to be a dad and he agreed. As she grew up though, he wanted to be involved but I didn't think it was right to confuse Blue in that way so I let him see her once or twice a year. Jon was jealous that Elliott got to be Blue's dad and he was over-protective of her. _That's_ why he was violent with Elliott. Jon's married now, he found his soulfinder. He doesn't want to be with me anymore."

Victor silently cursed at himself for not following protocol and checking out Jon's record before the interview where he presumably would have read all of this. Maybe now, knowing that he was married, they might be able to find him. There weren't any properties listed under his name, but maybe there was one under his wife's name. "You should have told us," he pointed out. "Anyway. For now, those are the only questions we have for you so you're free to go. But this isn't over, Mrs Williamson. Don't leave town and be prepared for us to bring you in for questioning again if needs be. If you'd like to wait here and I'm sure Katherine will be in in a moment to see you out."

"Thank you Agent Benedict," Mrs Williamson sighed in relief that the interrogation was over.

Victor left the room and found himself face to face with Hazel as she left the side room. "Where are you going?" He asked her.

"I'm going to try and get Elliott released on bail," she replied. "It didn't work last time but... Well, this is different. He isn't the only suspect, plus Blue has given him an alibi and the rehab's record book proves that he was there. He'll probably get put on house arrest, but anything's better than prison. I'm going to try and get it so he's tagged though, so he has time to go and visit Blue. It seems important to both of them."

"Blue would like that, she misses him," Victor nodded.

"About that... I never would have expected you to visit Blue simply because she hardly gets any visitors," she said gently. "I think it's really great that you're doing that."

Victor smiled. "You don't expect it because you think I'm heartless and mean, but I'm not. I'm not who you think I am, Hazel."

"Yeah, I'm starting to see that," she said quietly, returning a small smile and looking into his eyes. Their eyes locked together, the contact like a scene you would see in a movie and it gave Victor a shiver down his spine. After a few long seconds, she was the first to look away. "Anyway, I should go. See what I can do for Elliott."

"Well, good luck." Without realising what he was doing, he reached up and pushed a strand of her behind her ear after noticing that the strand kept swinging into her face. Dropping his hand, he gulped and felt guilty. He felt like he was doing something he shouldn't considering she was dating his brother, but how was sorting her hair out inappropriate? It felt intimate to him though, which he thought was pretty stupid. The guilt reminded him of something he had been meaning to ask her. "It's Uriel's birthday next week, by the way."

"Yeah, I know. I remember," she nodded, breathing heavily. Victor wondered if she was as affected by him as he was by her? He doubted it.

"My parents are planning a surprise party and wanted me to tell you that you're invited. Not sure what time it'll be at just yet though."

"Yeah, of course I'll go," Hazel smiled. "Definitely."

"Brilliant. I guess you should go then."

"Yeah. Thanks, Victor." She looked at him one last time and said, "you did great in there by the way," before turning around and walking away from him.

* * *

_Thank you so much for the reviews you've been leaving, I love reading them so much! I hoped you liked this chapter._

_PS. If any of you have tumblr, please feel free to follow me: (bloodthirstyduck)(.tumblr)(.com) [it wouldn't let me post a proper link]_

_ I always check out a person's blog when they follow me and if I post a lot of the same things, I'll follow back :-)_

_xoxo_

_EDIT: There is a mention of one of the soulfinders in a future story of mine mentioned in here, let's see if you can spot her ;)_


	14. Chapter 14

_Thank you so much for the reviews on Chapter 13. I love reading them._

_And for those who guessed, you were right that the Welsh girl is going to be Uriel's soulfinder, but this story isn't about them two and they'll get their own (although there's isn't the next in my series). She's in this chapter, but won't be really in the rest of the story._

_This next chapter is skipping forward a few days; I hope you like it :) xo_

* * *

**29th January 2013**

When Georgie, Trace's soulfinder, invited Hazel along to a spa for the afternoon with her and Karla, Hazel had been quick to say yes. She'd been stressing over a lot of things recently so a massage sounded perfect right about now, plus it would be nice to get to know Uriel's mother and sister-in-law a bit more. Georgie had turned up with nine year old Gracie and the four were now sat down with their feet dangling into water that had little fish in.

Gracie giggled. "Mum, it tickles! The fish are biting me but it doesn't hurt."

"Yes, they're supposed to help your skin," Georgie smiled at her daughter. Hazel thought it was lovely to see them interacting - clearly they were very close, the sort of relationship she had once had with her own parents - and although Gracie looked more like Trace, she still had the same kind heart as her mother. "I didn't think you'd enjoy a day at the spa, you're not the type of child to want to sit down all day."

"Why is she here?" Karla questioned. "I know that it's a teacher training day, but I thought Trace was supposed to be looking after her? It's his day off, isn't it?"

"It was," Georgie sighed. "But Victor asked for his help on a drugs raid this morning. He's taking us out for a meal tonight to make up for it. And then we have my appointment with the doctor about my pregnancy tomorrow, which we're nervous about."

"You're pregnant?" Hazel raised her eyebrows, wondering why Uriel never mentioned that. "I didn't know. Congratulations."

"Thank you. We worked out that I'll be due at the end of August. I'm only about 9 weeks right now, so I'm not showing yet," she said as she rested her hand on her belly. "But we're really happy. I didn't want to tell everyone until the 20 week mark but Gracie spilled the beans at Christmas."

"It was an accident! I was just asking daddy if he knew," Gracie said with a roll of her eyes. "I can't wait to be a big sister. Do you have any brothers or sisters, Hazel?"

"A brother called George. He's a few years older than me and already has his own children: 5 year Thomas, 2 year old Lila, and a baby on the way. They're a handful, I don't know how he copes," she laughed.

"Try having seven," Karla chuckled. "You'll understand that the hassle is all worth it when you have your own children, Hazel. I don't know what your future plans are, but I know that Uriel wants a big family, he's always said that he's going to have about four children himself."

Hazel shifted awkwardly in her seat, feeling out of place. Truthfully, she had always wanted a few children herself yes, but the thought of even considering it right now felt bizarre to her strangely. To even think about having children with Uriel, especially sat next to his mother, was a tough concept for her and she just couldn't do it. Just like when she was thinking of moving here permanently, she hated herself for not being able to seriously think about fully committing to Uriel.

She was saved from having to reply when Gracie said, "Grandma, guess what? I was playing soccer with some boys at school and one of them kissed me when I scored a goal! He kissed me on the lips! It was so gross, I hated it."

Karla laughed, shaking her head in disbelief. "Gracie sweetheart, trust me, it won't always be like that. At your age, you shouldn't even be thinking about kissing boys! When you're older and you meet your soulfinder, kissing will be completely different."

"How?"

"Well, it'll be... Explosive. Every time you kiss him will be magical, loving and passionate. Even when you've been with him for years and years, you will yearn for his kisses. Do you know what? You should just never kiss a boy until you find your soulfinder, be a good girl."

Gracie giggled and asked, "is it always like that, mum? Hazel?"

Georgie nodded. Hazel paused a moment before saying, "it's not like that between Uriel and I. The kisses are soft, gentle... Not explosive. They're just... Sweet."

"Oh. Well that's probably because you're with Uriel and not your soulfinder," Georgie said after an awkward pause. "There's nothing wrong with that, sweet kisses are great too." She quickly changed the subject to stop anymore awkwardness over the situation, but hers and Karla's words still rang in Hazel's mind.

Kissing. It was a simple thing that all couples did and Uriel was one of four guys that she had kissed in her life, and in Hazel's honest opinion, the kisses were all the same. Yes, Uriel's were the most memorable but that was because the feelings she had for him were stronger than the feelings she had for the other guys, so obviously his kisses felt more special than the others. But was it true? Were kisses with your soulfinder amazing and so much more better? She had chosen not to be with Victor... Was that the right decision? Victor was her soulfinder, how much was she missing out on by not being with him?

These thoughts made her feel guilty, like she was betraying Uriel.

Hazel felt eyes watching her and turned to see Karla staring at her with wide eyes. When she met her eyes, Karla seemed to shake herself out of it and looked away, a frown remaining on her face. Somehow, being around his mother made Hazel feel even guiltier for doubting that being with Uriel was the right thing.

She quickly slid her phone out of her pocket and typed Uriel a quick text message, saying that she missed him and couldn't wait to see him tonight back at his flat. Then she closed her eyes and forced all thoughts of both Uriel and Victor out of her mind for the rest of the morning. It would have been more pleasant to forget about them for the whole day but she would be meeting with Victor to interview Jon Barker later in the day, so she just hoped she'd be able to put all person feelings aside for the time being.

* * *

"So, you don't mind working so hard and cleaning animal waste up every day?" Uriel joked as he and Vivienne put all the cleaning supplies back in the right closet.

Vivienne Buchanan was the new girl that he was working with and showing the ropes. She was quite short with pronounced curves and a little bit of extra fat yet wasn't too chubby, and had fiery natural orange hair that glinted red in a certain light. Although he had only known her for a few days, Uriel had already become good friends with her - he supposed that's what happened when you spent all day with a person - and they'd already talked about their lives a lot with each other. For example, Uriel knew that Vivienne had been born and grew up in Wales - her heavy Welsh accent was proof of that - with her dad who was Welsh also and her mother who was French, as well as her six older siblings. Vivienne was a lovely girl and a pleasure to work with, he had to admit.

"Nah," Vivienne replied with a smile. "We live on a farm back home so I've been doing this my whole life. Working in a zoo is different yeah, but only because of the different animals. Anyway, at least this way I'll get some muscles and lose the weight I put on over the holidays," she laughed. "There's always a positive side of every situation, you just have to figure it out."

Uriel grinned at her. "Well, that's one way to look at it." He looked at the clock on the wall. "Come on, we're done for the day. Let's sign out."

They headed to the staff office where they signed out for the day - they were only working half day for once - and said goodbye in the car park as they got into their separate cars. Uriel thought of the text he had received from Hazel about her missing him and couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. He decided to go to the supermarket to buy something nice for dinner tonight, but as he turned down an alley to take a shortcut there, a car drove up the other side of the alley. There was only space for one car so with a sigh, Uriel looked in his rearview mirror to reverse, only to see that another car had come up that way too and he was blocked in.

"What the hell?" He mumbled under his breath. He got out of the car just as one person from each of the other cars got out too. "Excuse me," he called out to them. "What are you doing? You've blocked me in, I have somewhere to go."

The two men both stepped forward, both with dark hair and dressed in plain black suits. "Uriel Benedict," the one to his left said. "I'm afraid we have a problem."

Uriel frowned. He didn't have his father or Will's power of sensing danger, but it didn't take a genius to figure out that these guys were trouble, especially considering they knew his name. He put his hands in the air and shook his head. "Look man, I don't want any problems. If one of you would be kind enough to move your cars, I'll be out of here."

"I'm afraid we can't do that," the first one spoke again. Both of them were walking slowly towards him, getting closer and closer. "See, that's not what our boss wants. Our boss wants a Benedict and you were her first choice and we always give our boss what she wants."

Uriel tried to run but they quickly caught him, pulling his hands behind his back and overpowering him as he struggled. "Son a bitch," he cursed as he finally resigned himself to the fact that he wasn't strong enough to fight them both and get away. He tried calling out to his family telepathically but - unsurprisingly considering it wasn't his lucky day - there was a savant in the area, no doubt in one of the cars, that was blocking his attempts.

One of the guys pressed a cloth against Uriel's mouth and he quickly recognised the strong smell of chloroform. He felt himself slowly relaxing and his eyes getting heavier, and his last thought before he passed out was that he hoped they didn't go after Hazel or his family for some reason and hurt them too.


	15. Chapter 15

**29th January 2013**

Elliott Williamson had been released on bail the morning before after Hazel pulled some strings for him, but he was unable to leave his house as he was still a main suspect despite Blue confirming his alibi. The FBI were now dealing with a new suspect, one whom they had taken into custody this morning: Jon Barker.

Hazel was running twenty minutes late and by the time she was running down the corridor - impressive considering she was in heels - Victor was pacing up and down the corridor and breathed an exasperated sigh when he stopped and saw her approaching. "Where the hell have you been?" He asked through his teeth. "I know I promised to wait for you until I went in, but I was just about to go without you. There's a schedule to these things, Hazel. Why are you so late?"

"Calm down, Benedict. I'm here now, aren't I?" She rolled her eyes. "And I'm sorry. Karla and Georgie insisted that I have something to eat with them before I came here because I hadn't eaten all day. I'm sorry."

"Oh," he looked taken aback, as if he had expected a sarcastic remark instead of an apology. "Well I'm glad they insisted that then. You shouldn't go a full day without eating, you should take care of yourself better and make sure you eat each meal despite how busy you are."

Hearing his caring words gave her butterflies in her stomach and she couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. "Thanks, Victor. Shall we go in then?" She pointed towards the interrogation room door. He nodded and led the way to the door, pushing it open and holding it open whilst she walked in. They sat down next to each other across from Jon Barker and his lawyer who had insisted on being present in the interview.

"Mr Barker," Victor said officially. "I'm Agent Benedict, this is lawyer Hazel Clarrison."

"Hey." Jon Barker said in a flat voice. His dark hair was pulled back like it was in the CCTV image they had of him and his sleeveless t-shirt showed off the tattoos that covered his arms and neck.

The lawyer next to him looked up from his notes to reveal a face lined with wrinkles, warm brown eyes and grey hair gelled back into a neat style. He smiled at Hazel. "Miss Clarrison, lovely to see you again."

Hazel grinned. His name was Theodore Willis and he had been a savant lawyer for years, as well as a professor to hopeful lawyers and had once taught Hazel for a year. She had learnt a lot from him as he had been a brilliant teacher and he was role model to her. They'd stayed in touch over the years to talk every now and then about certain cases but she hadn't heard from him for a few months until now. "Mr Willis, you look well. How is your wife doing? And your daughter, I heard she had the baby?"

"Little Teddy, named after me," he nodded proudly. "We're all fine thank you. Right, shall we get on with this then and get it over with? My client wishes for you to know everything you want and has assured me he will answer your questions as honestly as he can."

"Well hopefully that's how this will go," Victor said. "Mr Barker, you know that you're here as a suspect. You're here because of information that we received from Bluebell Williamson."

Jon's eyebrows twitched, his eyes growing wide; he looked sad to hear this information. "Blue's the reason I'm here? Why- why would she do that?"

"It's not all down to Blue, but she's the one that brought you to our attention," Victor explained. "She told us about your affair with Mrs Williamson and about the fact that you're her biological daughter. She mentioned that a few times you had been violent towards Elliott Williamson which would be a reason for you to frame him, plus that your savant power is to control technology. Such as bombs."

Jon nodded. "Well yeah, that's all true. But I wouldn't frame Elliott for a murder like that. No way, I'm not that type of person. I was violent towards Elliott because he wouldn't let Judith allow me to see Blue more often. She's my daughter and I don't even know her! He won't even let me visit her at the rehab centre, he's told the centre's security that I'm not allowed in. I've always been angry and jealous, but I'd never frame him for a murder." His words reminded Hazel of Mrs Williamson's words when she had been defending him, but they didn't sound suspicious. Even without her power she had a good sense of being able to tell when people were lying and it didn't look like Jon was.

"You told Poppy Williamson that you knew her father was innocent but that if she ever told anybody she would end up hurt," Victor said in a strict tone. He looked intimidating even to Hazel and she guessed that he was like this with all suspects to try and scare them into talking. "That seems a bit suspicious to us, Mr Barker. Care to tell us what that was about?"

"I didn't mean it like that," he sighed and rubbed his hand across his forehead to swipe away some sweat. "I just meant that I didn't believe Elliott was guilty and that if whoever did kill the family found out that people were starting to figure that out, they wouldn't happy. I didn't mean for it to sound threatening, I just... I knew that she was probably worried about her dad and I wanted to give her some hope. She reminds me so much of Blue when she was that age."

Victor and Hazel exchanged a glance in which they each were thinking the same unspoken question: _Is he telling the truth?_ Hazel looked at Jon and asked, "the night the bomb went off. Where were you? Do you have an alibi?"

"Yes," he nodded eagerly. "My wife, my soulfinder, she was in labour that night. I was with her at the hospital the whole time and my baby boy wasn't born until the next day. I never left there, I'm sure that the hospital could confirm that."

His jaw twitched and he shifted awkwardly in his seat. Hazel had learnt all about body language as it not only helped with potential clients, but helped in court cases when she was questioning somebody. Jon's body language was revealing something to Hazel and she quickly mentioned it. "I believe you about that," she said. "But I don't quite believe that you're telling us the whole truth about what you know. You're hiding something from us, Mr Barker. I want to know what."

He shook his head. "I'm not hiding anything! I swear."

Hazel saw Victor lean forward out of the corner of her eye and looked at him to see him glaring at Jon. "If Miss Clarrison says that you're hiding something from us, I believe her. I trust her. So tell us everything you know. I can manipulate your mind to tell me but if you resist it will almost certainly be painful for you, so let's not go to that extreme. Tell us everything. Now."

Jon gulped, looking scared, and Hazel didn't blame him; Victor's tone was deep and dangerous, not sounding happy that Jon had lied to his soulfinder. "Okay, okay," he said quickly, letting out a long sigh and breathing heavily through his nose before answering. "Honestly, I don't know for certain who killed the Fletcher family and that's the truth. But as soon as I heard that Elliott had been taken to prison and it was very likely he was going to go down for it, I didn't believe it at all. Yeah, I was jealous of Elliott and furious that he wouldn't let me see Blue more, but I know that he's a good guy. And he dotes on those three girls, he'd never do anything to jeopardize being able to see them growing up, he's a selfless father. Brilliant, I can't deny that... I know that I'm a shitty father to Blue, okay? I know it," his voice trembled, "but I knew that it would devastate her if her dad went to prison. I just wanted to know what really happened."

"So what did you do?" Hazel pressed.

"I went to see Judith. I told her that I was sorry about Elliott, but she was more upset about David and she told me about the affair she was having with him, that they were soulfinders. She spun me some bullshit about how her and David were leaving their families to be together properly."

"Bullshit?" Hazel raised her eyebrows curiously. "How do you know it was bullshit?"

"Well I didn't at first but then a few weeks later my wife had a vision. She has visions of the past you see, and she told me all about it. She saw Judith talking to David. He was saying that he couldn't leave his wife and children for her and she didn't like that obviously. She thought her soulfinder would always want to be with her. She never even considered the thought of her soulfinder purposely choosing to be with somebody else." At this, Hazel and Victor looked at each other before quickly looking away awkwardly. "David left and Judith was stood there, mumbling to herself. She apparently said something about how if David's wife and children weren't around he'd go back to her for comfort and they'd be together forever then. She said she was going to make sure that David came back to her, no matter what she had to do. My wife said Judith sounded and looked crazy, like losing her soulfinder to somebody else eventually drove her mad."

Not wanting to dwell on that depressing thought, Hazel asked the first thing that came to mind. "Do you think Judith killed David and his family?"

"I'm not sure," he shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure what she's capable of. She's always been a good actress, that's probably why nobody saw how crazy she's gone. She wouldn't kill David, she loved him and wanted to be with him, but I think... Maybe she had it in her to kill his family, yeah. But I doubt she knows anything about bombs so again, I'm not sure."

Victor and Hazel looked at each other seriously. "We need to speak to Judith again," Victor said whilst Hazel nodded along in agreement.

* * *

_So it's not the longest chapter, nor is it the most exciting chapter, but it's necessary. It's bringing everything together, so we'll just have to see where it goes from now!_

_Please leave reviews :) xoxo_


	16. Chapter 16

**29th January 2013**

Hazel entered Uriel's flat, shutting and locking the door behind her with the key he'd given down the hallway, she entered the living room. There were still boxes strewn about the place as he hadn't had time to finish unpacking, but Hazel had thought that he'd get on with some of it today considering he had finished work early. The place looked empty and it was completely silent, devoid of any sound but the ticking of the clock in the kitchen. "Uriel?" She called out, dropping her bag and the key on the coffee table and beginning to search the flat for him. "Uri, are you home?"

After a look in each room she came to the conclusion that he wasn't. He could have easily gone out somewhere, she knew that. Maybe he'd just gone to the supermarket for something for dinner? But he'd said that he would be here by the time she got home and Uriel never went back on his word. She went to the coffee table and pulled her phone out of her bag, dialling Uriel's number. She called him four times and each time it went straight to voicemail; that was unlike Uriel too, he always answered his phone unless he was at work. She tried to contact him telepathically and when she couldn't even find a connection to his mind, she started to worry. Where was he and why couldn't she get in touch with him? She unlocked her phone again and dialled another number, one that she had never called before and didn't think she would.

The phone was picked up and the familiar deep, husky voice answered. "Hello?"

"Victor, it's Hazel," she said, trying to stay calm. "Where are you?"

"I just got home, why?" He sounded puzzled as to why she would phone him; she didn't blame him, she'd be shocked if he randomly phoned her too.

"I don't suppose you've heard from Uriel, have you? It's just, he said that he'd be here when I got back and he isn't. I've tried phoning him but he didn't answer, and I couldn't even connect with him telepathically. He finished work half day, I don't know where he could be. I'm totally freaking out, Vick. This isn't like him! I'm worried. Please tell me you've heard from him."

"No. No, I haven't," Victor let out a long sigh. "Look, just stay there, okay? I'll come over. I'm trained to be able to spot any break-ins, or little fights and all that."

"You think he's been kidnapped?!" She exclaimed.

"No, no, no, of course not!" He attempted to reassure her. "But once we can eliminate that possibility, we have a better chance at figuring out where he is. Maybe he's just gone somewhere and left shields on his mind and his phone's dead? We don't actually know that something is wrong yet, so just calm down. Right, I'm leaving my apartment now. I'll see you in fifteen." He hung up the phone, leaving Hazel at least a little less worried for Uriel's safety.

* * *

There were no sign of a break in or a fight at Uriel's flat, which was good. The bad thing was that they still had no idea where he was and it was now an hour after Victor had arrived. Now, the whole family were crammed into the small flat, all sharing the same sense of worry for their missing family member. Hazel was clearly upset but was holding herself together by making hot drinks for all the adults and juice for Gracie, as well as laying out some nibbles. Nobody was really in the mood for eating, but it didn't seem like she cared. Victor had been watching her out of the corner of his eye the whole time and when he saw her go into the kitchen again, he stood up and followed her, closing the door behind him to give them privacy.

Hazel stood in front of the sink, scrubbing at dishes that were already spot clean. "Hazel." She ignored him. He walked over to stand to her left, putting a hand on her back. "Hazel, stop," he said gently. "They're clean. Stop."

Hazel let go of the dishes and moved her hands to cling onto the edge of the sink, breathing heavily with her eyes closed. "I'm just so scared that something bad has happened to him. God, he doesn't deserve to be hurt."

"I know he doesn't. And we don't know that's what's happened. We just have to be patient and keep hoping," he tried to reassure her, hating seeing so much pain in her expression. "We're all worried, Hazel... But whatever has happened, we will get him back and he'll be okay, I promise you."

Hazel let out a sob and opened her eyes, revealing tears. She looked up at Victor before turning her body slightly, wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing her head into his neck as she shook with her crying. After a moment, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly, closing his eyes and reveling in the moment. Despite the circumstances, he felt so happy to finally be able to hold his soulfinder and comfort her. He didn't want to ever let go; he wanted to hold on and protect her from the rest of the world. The moment ended too soon. She pulled her head back to look into his eyes, their heads close enough that he could see the quiver in her lips. If he just leaned in a little bit closer, he would be able to kiss her... Oh, how much he wanted to kiss her. He was so tempted to, every part of his being longed to feel her lips against his.

But he let go of her and gently pushed her back a little, knowing that he couldn't kiss her. She was dating his brother; he wouldn't ever betray Uriel like that, even if this was his soulfinder stood in front of him. She smiled up at him gratefully as she wiped tears from her cheeks, as if she knew what he was thinking and was glad that he hadn't kissed her. That hurt his feelings a little, but he knew it was better than kissing her and having her reject him. Because he knew that's what she would do. Hazel didn't want him, she'd said so herself, and he doubted that she had developed feelings for him like he had for her.

"Go and sit down," he said to her, sternly yet softly. "You've done enough for everybody else today. I'll make you a drink seeing as you made everyone but yourself one," he smiled.

"Thank you, Victor. You know, having you so calm around here is kind of stopping me from freaking out."

Victor laughed. "Well, I'm glad that you're not freaking out. Go on."

She smiled at him one last time before leaving the kitchen. For a short moment, Victor just stood there and remembered the feeling of having her in his arms before turning to fill the kettle up and turn it on. While the kettle was boiling, he heard the kitchen door open and close again and turned around to see the small stature of his mother stood there, looking anxious.

"Hey mum," he said. "You worried about Uri?"

"Obviously," she replied with a short nod. "But that's not why I came in here. I need to talk to you about something very serious, Victor. I haven't even told your father that I know this because I wanted to have a chance to talk to you about this first." Victor was about to ask what she was talking about but she answered his unspoken question before he could ask it. "I know that Hazel is your soulfinder."

Victor froze, staring at his mother in shock. He wasn't going to deny it; neither him nor any of his brothers had ever been able to lie to Karla and not be reprimanded for it. "How?" He managed to say through his shock.

"This morning Hazel was thinking about the fact you're her soulfinder and I accidentally heard her thoughts," Karla said, her expression not revealing her emotions to the matter. "I heard her thoughts on you two being soulfinders, and now I want to know what you think about it."

He shrugged, trying to look nonchalant but knowing that he probably failed to. "It is what it is. She's dating Uriel and she chose to stay with him when we realized we're soulfinders. We both love him and want him to be happy, and he's happy with her. It doesn't matter what I think about it, he's my brother. I can't just steal her from him."

"I'm not suggesting that you should," she raised her eyebrows. "You're both my sons and all I want is for both of you to have an amazing and happy life. Victor, do you want to be with Hazel? Forget the fact that she's with Uriel, think about _you_. Do you want to be with her?"

"Yes." He didn't even have to think about it. It was just something that he knew the answer to, from deep down in his bones. "I'm not going to lie, I want to be with her. But I can't. It would break Uriel's heart, mum. I couldn't do that to him. Plus, I'm sure Hazel doesn't feel the same way about me and she obviously needs to have a choice in the matter."

"You don't know unless you ask her," Karla pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Of course I don't want Uriel to be heartbroken and devastated but... She's your soulfinder, Vick. You're never going to find another girl that you love as much as you do her, and you'll never be fully happy with somebody other than your soulfinder. I'm not telling you to steal her from Uriel and you're right that it's Hazel choice too. I'm just saying not to give up on her so easily; you can't give up on your soulfinder. Uriel is young, he'll get over it eventually. And what happens if Hazel stays with him, then he finds his soulfinder and leaves Hazel for her? He might decide not to, but you never know what's going to happen. Don't lose her without a fight if you really want her."

"I'm not gonna fight for her," Victor said simply, shaking his head. "I'm not going to be the bad guy that takes the girl from his brother. If Hazel decides to leave Uriel to be with me, then I'll fight for her then, even if it ruins my relationship with Uriel. I'm not forcing Hazel into anything, it's her choice."

Karla smiled and nodded. "That sounds fair. We really did raise you well, didn't we? You're a good brother but don't forget that your happiness is important too. I hope everything works out for the better. And just so you know, if you and Hazel do get together, your father and I will support that because you're soulfinders. Uriel would understand eventually. And if you don't get together, we'll still be there for you, okay?"

"Okay mum," Victor smiled and picked the cup up; he had gone through the process of making Hazel's tea whilst talking to Karla. "Thank you."

They both headed back into the living room, Karla joining Saul, Georgie and Will on the sofa and Victor going over to where Hazel was sat on the computer chair. He gave her the cup of tea and she smiled gratefully at him, then leant against the wall next to her with his arms folded across his chest. He was still in disbelief that his mother had practically given him permission to steal his brother's girlfriend and said that she would be okay with that. That was so unlike Karla considering she always tried her best to not have the brothers fight and this would surely lead to a long-term fight, but he guessed that she would relatively be okay with it because she understand the need for soulfinders to be together and how special it was. Victor looked down at Hazel and yet again wondered: did she want to be with him? Did she have conflicting thoughts about whether to be with Victor or Uriel? Did she ever wonder if things would be different if she dated her soulfinder? As unlikely as it sounded, he hoped it was the truth.

He looked up at the doorway when he heard Trace clear his throat as he came back into the living room from the hallway, phone in hand and Gracie hovering around his side; she had taken a sudden interest in Trace's job and Victor had noticed today that she was staying near her father. Right now, she looked up at him in awe as if he were her role model which was adorable. "I just got a call from Ivan, my partner. He tracked Uriel's car for me and found it in an alley, door open and key still in the car. Uriel's phone was on the ground close by as if he'd dropped it or it'd fallen out of his pocket during a fight. He said that he noticed tyre tracks on the ground either side of Uriel's car so he's heading back to the station to look at CCTV around that area, see if anything stands out. He's sent someone out to take Uri's car to the garage for now before someone steals it. I guess now we just have to wait and see if he finds anything from the CCTV cameras."

"Will uncle Uriel be okay, daddy?" Gracie asked softly before yawning.

"Of course he will. He's family, we'd never let harm come to him," Trace replied with a smile. He bent down and picked her up, balancing her on his hip. Victor always loved seeing them together; it made him want kids of his own even more. He looked at the rest of the family. "Look, we probably won't find anything out until tomorrow, why don't we all go home? It's getting cramped in here with all of us here, plus Gracie's getting tired. It's nearly seven and that's when her bedtime normally is. I think we could all use some rest."

The others agreed, making Trace promise to phone them if he got any new information which he of course agreed to. They all started to leave, but Victor lagged behind them until it was just him and Hazel left in the flat. He'd told himself that it was because he wanted to make sure she was okay before he left, but the truth was that he just didn't want to leave her alone. What if whoever had took Uriel came to the flat and found Hazel here? What if they hurt her? He wanted to stay and protect her - he felt like it was his duty to do so - but he was too scared to ask her if that would be okay.

Seeing her stood awkwardly near the front door, he asked, "are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, of course I am," she said confidently and almost bitterly. "Why wouldn't I be? I know how to look after myself, Benedict." She looked up and met his eyes. Then she sighed and shook her head, her voice sad with her next words. "No, I'm not going to be okay. I'm worried about Uriel and I'm scared to be here on my own. My job is to deal with innocent people and stop them from going to prison, not risk my life all of the time and constantly be in danger. I'm not used to this, I don't know to handle it."

"It gets easier to deal with if that makes it any better for you," he replied with a little smile. "My family have had our fair share of danger, plus I'm in danger quite a lot at work. Mind you, I'm trained to be able to handle it, you're not. I don't blame you for being scared, that's a natural reaction. Don't be embarrassed about it."

She nodded, smiling at him warmly. The smile didn't last long and was replaced by a nervous expression as she fidgeted a little on her spot. "Victor... Do you think... I mean, you don't have to... But would you stay here with me tonight? I don't want to be alone."

"Of course," he replied straight away, nodding his head and knowing that he probably looked over-eager. Remembering that the flat only had one bedroom - Uriel could have afforded a bigger flat, but he'd said that for now he preferred a smaller and more cosy one - he said, "you take the bed, I'll sleep on the sofa." She nodded in agreement but didn't move. "Look, it's still early. Why don't we order a pizza and get on with some unpacking for Uriel? That'll kill some time."

She nodded, the smile returning to her face. "Yeah, that sounds fun. Let's do it."


	17. Chapter 17

_Thank you so much for the reviews you have all been leaving._

_This chapter doesn't have a lot going on in sense of events, but does have a lot going on to do with emotions. It's from Hazel's point of view and her emotions are kind of all over the place in this chapter, as well as her realizing something important about herself so I hope I portrayed all of that well._

* * *

**30th January 2013**

Hazel stumbled out of the bedroom early in the morning, dressed in her sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt. She hadn't slept much last night due to thoughts of all the terrible things that could be happening to Uriel whilst she was wrapped up nice and warm in his bed.

She looked over at the sofa as she entered the living room and smirked, barely containing a little giggle; Victor was a humorous sight to behold. For some reason he had turned the sofa around to face the door - almost as if he wanted to be able to watch it during the night - and he was fast asleep, breathing lightly. Laid on his back, he had one arm on his chest and the other dangling off the edge of the sofa and to the floor; he was taller than the length of the sofa so his legs were squashed onto it, half hanging off the edge. It looked like an uncomfortable position to sleep in but at least he had managed to fall asleep, she thought to herself in slight envy.

She walked closer until she was stood next to the sofa, looking down at him. It suddenly dawned on her that she had never seen him look so... Peaceful. She'd seen him angry, bitter, annoyed, furious, amused, mean, worried and compassionate. But never peaceful. No, there was a hardness to expression no matter the emotion he was showing, a hardness that gave him a rough edge and revealed what he was always trying to hide from everybody: he was alone and unhappy. And somehow she just knew, as if it were her heart telling her, that that rough edge, that loneliness and unhappiness, it would go away if he were with her, his soulfinder. She instinctively knew that she was the only person in the world who could make him look this peaceful when he was awake too.

Despite having only known him less than a month, it felt like she had been denying her feelings for him for a very long time now. But the inner turmoil and worry she felt for Uriel had made her too weak to be able to put walls up around the box she'd locked her feelings for Victor up in. The walls were down now and the box was unlocked, and she was finally realising herself that a vast majority of her being longed to be with him. He infuriated and challenged her and made her want to rip her hair out and scream at the top of her lungs, but he also made her calmer and made her heart quiver just by looking at her.

Again, she thought about how amazing it would be to be with Victor. She was sure that every day with him would bring something new, that they'd no doubt argue a hell of a lot but she would always be able to make him happy and he would always be able to make her calm. An image came into her mind of her moving to the Wrickenridge/Denver area so she wouldn't be separated from him. She pictured settling down and getting married, having children and starting a new life with him. She could imagine it all but most importantly, she _wanted_ it all. She longed to be able to tell Victor about these thoughts, to have him say that he wanted the exact same thing too.

Sadly, she had never been able to picture staying here for Uriel, settling down and having a family with him. She loved him dearly, with all her heart, but that was just the honest truth. Did that mean she wanted to leave Uriel for Victor? She wasn't quite sure. Yes, she was thinking about what it would be like to be with Victor but the thought of leaving Uriel and breaking his heart... She didn't think she could do that, could hurt him in that way.

Victor stirred slightly in his sleep and Hazel started to slowly back away from him, not wanting to be stood staring at him when he awoke. That would be awkward. Suddenly, the shrill ringing of a mobile phone screamed into the flat and interrupted the silence, scaring the life out of Hazel. In her shock, she jumped and stepped backwards, banging into an empty cardboard box... And falling into it, bum first.

Cramped up in the box, she heard laughter and looked up to see Victor now awake, sat up on the sofa and laughing at her. "Shut up and help me up, will you? Bastard," she called out to him, frowning. "It's not funny!"

"Oh it really is," he said through his laughter. He pulled his still-ringing phone out of his pocket and held his index finger up to her to indicate one minute. "Let me answer this first, it's Trace."

"No, Vick-" She tried to protest but he answered the phone anyway. His side of the phone conversation didn't give much away and after less than a minute she blanked his voice out and tried to pull herself out of the box. It didn't work; she was stuck. She pouted and frowned, looking like she was a five year old sulking as she waited for Victor to finish speaking to Trace.

A few minutes later two large hands reached down and grabbed hold of her, lifting her out of the box and placing her back on her feet before letting go of her. Victor stood in front of her, his laughter now gone and a serious, grim expression on his face. Hazel's stomach dropped and she forgot about her anger at him for laughing at her. "What? What's wrong?" She asked quickly. "Uriel, is he...?" She couldn't finish the sentence but Victor seemed to understand what she was asking.

"No," he shook his head. "Not that I know anyway. Trace's partner and some of the other guys were watching CCTV tapes all night. They watched Uriel's car go down an alley and two other cars block him in, cars that had darkened windows and fake registration plates. Luckily, we have a lot of cameras around here and they managed to track the two cars to a compound of warehouses. Most of the warehouses are used as storage units for companies or people that don't have enough room in their house for all their things. There's only one warehouse that is empty and the cameras managed to catch a grainy image of the cars going into that warehouse."

"This is good news!" Hazel exclaimed. "That's where Uriel is, we have to go and get him. Come on, what are we still waiting here for?!"

Victor sighed loudly, shaking his head before she even finished speaking. "We can't just go there without a plan. That'd be a suicide mission, we don't know if these guys are dangerous and armed. I'll gather my SWAT team together and we'll go in with a plan to get Uriel, me and my guys out safely. And you, Clarrison; _you're_ staying here."

"WHAT?! I can't! I have to be there for Uriel, I have to make sure that's okay. Victor, I know you'd be able to pull some strings so that I can go. I know that Georgie went with you and Trace to save Gracie and her dad! She told me."

"Yeah, and Georgie's dad died because Trace and Georgie were separated from us and we weren't able to get to them in time," he snapped. "I'm not going to take any risks this time, it could put Uriel's life in even more danger than it already is."

"I won't get hurt, Victor! Please, please let me be there for him," she pleaded, tears in her eyes.

"No. And that's final. I'm not arguing about this or letting you get your own way," he hissed through clenched teeth, his jaw locked into place.

"Why not?" She asked. She badly wanted to go with him and be one of the first people that Uriel interacted with following his kidnap. She wanted to hold him and tell him that he was safe now, that he was okay and nobody was going to hurt him. She had no way of knowing what these people were doing to him but she knew that she wanted to rescue him from them and make things better for him.

"Because I don't want you to get hurt!" Victor blurted out. "If you were there, I'd be too busy focusing on protecting you to do my job properly. And if something went wrong and you just so happened to get hurt, or worse, I wouldn't be able to stand knowing that I could have done something to keep you safe! You're staying here, Hazel. This is the only way that I can protect you." He paused for a moment before adding, "besides, that's what your boyfriend would want me to do."

Hazel was speechless. All she could do was look up at him in awe. Recently she'd been starting to see a better side of Victor, one that wasn't boring and intimidating all the time, and now she was seeing another great side of him. Having him so protective of her made her heart swell with... Love. It made her heart swell with love for him. It was a feeling she didn't want to feel for him. Why would she? She loved Uriel, she didn't want to have serious feelings for his brother. But another part of her didn't want to stop feeling love for Victor; it felt like the world would end if she did.

"Victor..." She started, not sure what she wanted to say to him.

He lifted a hand up and gently laid it on her left cheek, his palm soft and warm against her skin. "Please don't argue with me on this," he whispered softly. "Out of all the things we argue about, please don't add this to the list. If you got badly hurt... I don't think I'd be able to cope with that."

Hazel licked her lips, her mouth feeling dry before answering him just as quietly as he had spoke. "Victor, why do you care so much? And don't lie to me." She reached her hand up to place it on top of his, the gesture feeling natural and right.

"Don't use your power on me," he said, taking her holding his hand in the wrong context.

"What? I'm not trying to, I would never do that to you. I only like using it for work. I just want you to be honest with me, Victor."

"Why?" He asked, sounding like he was holding back tears. He moved his hand away from her cheek and took a step back, shaking his head. "Why do you want me to tell you how I really feel? Why I care so much? Because it isn't going to change anything, so what's the point? If I told you that I had changed my mind and that I wanted you to be mine, that I can feel myself falling in love with you and I dream at night of you feeling the same way, what would you do? You wouldn't do anything Hazel, because you want to be with Uriel, not me. It doesn't matter how I feel about you; you'll always choose him, won't you? And I know all of that and it drives me absolutely crazy. It kills me to see you with him. All of this is spilling out of my mouth right now... I only just realized that I felt this way recently, but I feel it so strong. So strong. I don't want to hurt my brother but I can't hold it in anymore!" He cried out, almost shouting. His body was shaking with emotion and tears finally filled his eyes, spilling over onto his cheeks; he acted as if he didn't even know that he was crying. "Are you happy now? There, I've been honest with you. I want to be with you; I think I love you. And _that's_ why I care so much. _That's_ why I refuse to let you come with me and put yourself in danger. Okay? Does that answer your question, Hazel?"

She nodded weakly, tears now spilling down her own face. She let out a long breath, voice trembling. "Victor, I'm-"

"Don't," he shook his head. "Don't you dare apologize. I should go and sort things out so that I can head into the warehouse as soon as possible." He grabbed his coat, having slept in all his clothes and his shoes and not having any clean clothes to change into. "I'm going. I'll try and keep you updated about what's going on, keep your phone by your side. And lock the door behind me."

"Okay," she nodded, not really knowing what else to say. He headed over to the door, unlocking it and swinging it open. "Wait, Victor," she called out before he left. He turned around and looked at her questioningly, his face now emotionless. Hazel sighed, hating that he always felt like he had to wear a mask and hide his emotions from the world. "Just be careful," she said to him. "I don't want you to get hurt, either."

He nodded once and left the apartment, leaving her alone.


	18. Chapter 18

_So it takes me at least a day to write a chapter because I edit it loads and re-write parts; I'm never happy with just the first draft. But I'm going to try and finish this story as soon as I can (I think there will be about three or four chapters left, we'll see) because I really want to start the next story but I think even the first chapter of that might spoil the ending of this so I can't start it until this one is finished._

_I have a lot of time to finish this story now. I've now finished my college course- I officially have a level 2 diploma in Animal Care, yay! I go back to college in September to start a 2-year Animal Care course that will get me a level 3 diploma but until then I have nothing to do but write! So I'm going to update as much as I can._

_Also, if you didn't know: I have started a new story called 'Innocent Illusions' where the main character is Gracie, Trace and Georgie's daughter. Check it out if you want :)_

_Hope you like this chapter, please leave reviews! xo_

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**30th January 2013**

After Victor had left, Hazel didn't know what to do with herself. For about five minutes she simply stood facing the door, crying her emotions and confusion about her feelings out, praying for all of this to just go away. She didn't want to think about Uriel or Victor or any of this anymore. But this was her reality now and there wasn't anything she could do at that moment to change that fact.

She'd locked the door and headed into the bathroom to shower, making sure to carry her phone with her. In the shower, she'd stood under the rain of water and relaxed her mind, closing her eyes and breathing in deep breaths. The relaxation technique was one a therapist had taught her. She'd started to see Dr. Walter after the death of her parents due to the fact her grief was causing her to fall behind in her studies and she was having regular panic attacks. She no longer saw Dr. Walter but she'd remembered the technique and it still helped calm down her emotions and mind; in this case not only did it calm her down but it washed away the tidal wave of emotions the morning had brought for her.

After showering, she got dressed and headed into the bedroom, sitting down on the bed and pulling her laptop into her lap. Her phone was beside her but she'd still received no text or call from Victor. Opening her laptop, she decided to watch a movie online to try and take her mind off everything until he contacted her but just as she opened the browser a notification popped up to say she was getting a video call.

The call was from her brother whom was still in London; Hazel figured out that it would be about evening time over there. She answered the call and her brother's face popped up onto her screen. George had the same golden brown skin as Hazel and his messy hair was the same chestnut brown as hers. He also had the same brown eyes as her, which were wide and alert, as well as slightly bloodshot; it looked like he hadn't slept at all the night before.

"Hey, Haze!" He exclaimed, a grin on his face. "I've been waiting for you to come online for hours, I didn't want to pay for a phone call to America." He laughed.

Hazel grinned too, the grin coming to her face naturally despite the morning she'd had. "Hey, George. It's nice to see you. How are Aimee, Thomas and Lila? Are Tommy and Lila missing their favourite aunty?"

"You're their only aunty," he rolled his eyes, "but yes, they do. Tommy!" He shouted, looking away from the screen. A moment later, five year old Thomas came into view and George pulled him onto his knee. Thomas' skin was lighter than his father's but he had George's eyes. His hair was fiery red like his mum's, sticking out in every direction. "Look who that is." George pointed at the screen, making his son's attention divert to it.

Tommy stared for a moment before he finally realised who the smiling face belonged to. "Aunty Hazel!" He shouted excitedly. "Aunty Hazel, you're on the computer."

Hazel laughed, nodding her head and already feeling better. "Hey, Tommy. I miss you!"

"I miss you too," he clapped his hands together. "When are you coming back?"

"Very soon, I promise. And I'll make sure to bring you and Lila a present home, okay?"

"Okay! And don't forget the baby, Cailen will want a present too! Bye bye aunty Hazel, I'm going to watch TV now!" He waved before jumping off George's knees and running away.

"Did I just hear him correctly?" Hazel asked her brother, eyebrows raised. "Did he say the baby?"

"He sure did," George chuckled, looking like a proud father. "Aimee gave birth to baby Cailen yesterday. He's so beautiful Hazel, he looks likes dad, I swear to God. You've got to come and meet him, how much longer are you going to stay in Colorado?"

Hazel swallowed down a lump that suddenly appeared in her throat. "I don't think it will be for much longer," she answered. "Things are... Coming together, over here. I'm certain I'm going to win this case when it goes to court and then I guess I just have to say my goodbyes and come home. I'm looking forward to it, I think. Getting back to my normal life and away from drama."

"Drama?" He raised his eyebrows, having always been one to love being nosey and knowing everybody's business. "Do explain."

Hazel shook her head. "Not really in the mood to, George. I'll tell you and Aimee everything when I get home instead. Anyway, I should probably go; I have some research to do about something."

They said goodbye to each other and ended the video call. Hazel hadn't been lying about wanting to do some research. A thought had suddenly popped into her mind: it felt too easy to find the warehouse. Surely these people would know to take precautions against CCTV cameras? And it didn't take a genius to figure out that staying in the only empty warehouse in a compound made their location obvious. She'd dealt with criminals, from murderers to kidnappers, and she knew that they were more careful than this group were being. Why had it been so easy?

Being a lawyer, she had access to records such as who owned what building, records that not a lot of people could see if it was classified. Searching the database for compounds in this area, she found two; only one was close by so she brought the records up for that one onto her screen. Reading the details, she found that it matched Victor's description: only one warehouse was listed as being empty whilst the others were all being used. She looked at the name of who was currently the owner of the empty warehouse and gasped, a bad feeling overtaking her. She opened up a new database and searched the person's name, quickly reading all the information that was available to her. "Oh God," she whispered as bits and pieces started coming together, a highly possible theory forming in her mind.

She grabbed hold of her phone - still nothing from Victor - and attempted to call him three times before giving up after it went to voicemail each time. She didn't dwell on that; she had something much more important to focus on.

She scrolled through her contacts until she found the name Richard Smith-Dwight. Richard had a very high working position in the savant net and more often than not was the main man dealing with the savant FBI agents and the savant lawyers. She'd already been told that he was overseeing the Fletcher family case and knew that he was exactly the person to call with this information; he was constantly updated on the case so he knew everything that they did already.

The phone rang five rings before it was picked up. "Miss Clarrison," his voice sounded rough and harsh. "It's the middle of the afternoon and I have a lot of work to do. This better be important."

"It is, sir. I promise," she said, forcing her voice to sound calm.

"Well what is it then? Come on, get it out," he answered impatiently.

"It's about the Fletcher case. Agent Victor Benedict and a load of his men have gone into a warehouse to save Victor's brother-"

"Yes I'm aware of that," he interrupted her. "What does that have to do with the Fletcher case and is so important you're interrupting my work?"

"The FBI didn't have access to ownership records of the warehouse but I do so I just searched it on the database," she began her long explanation. "The current owner of the warehouse is a woman called Nora Connors, sir. Nora is Judith Williamson's older sister. I did a background check on Judith a while ago and recognised Nora's name as Connors was Judith's pre-marital name. Sir, I did a background check on Nora Connors and she has a history of mental health and criminal activity. When she was twelve years old and Judith was six, they had a babysitter that apparently used to be horrible to the two girls. Nora repeatedly stabbed the woman and didn't even seem guilty about it- she said that she was protecting her sister and that she would do anything to protect Judith. The judge ruled her as mentally unstable so she went to a psychiatric hospital to serve time for the murder. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and more than once she hurt people that even just looked at Judith in the wrong way. Their parents were hardly around when they were younger and Nora practically brought Judith up since she was a baby. She's way over-protective of her sister, over-protective enough to _kill people_."

Richard was silent for a moment before he slowly asked, "what's your theory, Clarrison?"

"That Nora Connors is behind all of this," she said quickly, desperate for somebody else to hear her opinion. "She was released from the hospital just a few months before the Fletcher family were killed after the doctors finally deemed her stable enough. But what if she just playing them the whole time to make them think that? Think about it... If she got in touch with Judith after she left, she would have found out about David's affair with Judith. Then she heard that David told Judith he was no longer planning to leave his wife for her and saw how crazy that made Judith. Jon Barker said that his wife reported to him that Judith looked like she was losing her mind over the fact her soulfinder didn't want her... Nora was clearly not going to like that, was she? I think Nora figured out how to build a bomb - who knows what she's capable of? - and killed the Fletcher family. Now, Elliott Williamson's DNA was found on the bomb, making him look completely guilty... At the time, Elliott was battling with Judith about the fact Judith wasn't letting him have that much access to the kids, as well as hating her for cheating on him again. He was a problem for Judith, preventing her from carrying on with her life, just her and her girls. His DNA would have still been all over Judith's house, it would have been easy for Nora to get his fingerprints off something - remember, you can easily find information about how to do that on the internet - and threads from some clothing he left behind. If she framed him for the murders he would be out of the picture, he wouldn't be causing any hassle to Judith anymore because he'd be in prison. I think she planned on leaving it alone then, thinking that Elliott would go to prison and her sister would be able to have as happy a life as she could with her children. But then I came along and started questioning Elliott being guilty and with the help of Victor Benedict, I began to get closer to the truth. We figured out that Judith had something to do with it- she actually became our main suspect. Nora must have figured out that Uriel Benedict was important to both me and Victor and hired a bunch of guys to kidnap him. I think it's definitely connected. Finding her warehouse seemed too easy, sir. _It's a trap_. Nora probably wants Victor and I out of the way because we're the only ones that are really focused on Judith- everybody else thinks that Elliott is innocent. She probably expected me to go to the warehouse with Victor. I think she planned on killing both of us there, Uriel was just to lure us in. Elliott's on bail sir, she'd easily be able to get something of his again to make it look like he killed us; nobody would even think to question it: Elliott killed us because we were sending him to prison for killing the Fletcher's... I know it's a far-fetched theory but I'm convinced it's right. My instincts are never wrong, you know that. Nora is quite literally insane and her whole life she has gone to extreme measures to protect her sister. It all makes sense, sir."

"It _is_ a very plausible theory and I agree that your instincts have never been wrong..." Richard replied thoughtfully. "I think you're right, Clarrison. Look, you stay somewhere safe and I'll try and get in touch with Agent Benedict's group to tell them not to go in there- we'll get Uriel Benedict out of there somehow, but not this way. We don't even know that she'll harm Uriel when he's done nothing wrong towards Judith." Hazel hoped to God that he was right. "I'll send some guys down to assist Victor if I can't get in touch with him, try and end this thing as best as we can."

"Okay, sir. Please hurry," she pleaded.

"I will," he said. "Well done, Hazel. I should have known you would be the one to figure out the whole truth before anybody else," he chuckled, "you always are. I'll make sure that you get a pay rise for this, congratulations." He hung up the phone, presumably to make some calls to help Victor out.

Hazel leant back on the bed and closed her eyes, making a mental link with Victor for the first time since they'd realised they were soulfinders. _"Vick? It's me, Hazel. Are you there?"_

A short second later, he replied. _"Yeah. Hazel now isn't a good time, that's why I didn't answer your phone calls. I'm sorry for not keeping you updated, it all just happened so quickly. We're in the compound now, spreading ourselves out around the empty warehouse."_

_"Wait no, Victor. You can't go in there!"_

"_Why-" _The link cut off, his mind completely blocked off from her. It didn't long for her to figure out that the savant blocking her from contacting Uriel was probably blocking all telepathy around the warehouse, stopping her from talking to Victor.

_Please be okay, _she silently pleaded, an image of Uriel and Victor in her mind. _Both of you, please be okay. Come back to me unharmed. Please._


	19. Chapter 19

Author's note: Ugh, I'm not happy with this chapter. It didn't turn out to be as well written as I hoped for, sorry. Still, please read and review xoxo

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**30th January 2013**

The afternoon sun glared down on them, making Victor start to sweat in his dark clothing and bulletproof jacket. He was glad that his hair was tied back into a ponytail like usually so it wasn't in his face, and he sneaked behind a neighbouring warehouse with half of his men. The other half were taking a different route to the warehouse in question so that there weren't too many of them crowded into one hiding place.

He had Gary in front of him and Will behind him, all silently making their way closer to the warehouse, trying their best not to be spotted. As they paused for a moment, Victor suddenly a heard a voice in his mind: _"Vick? It's me, Hazel. Are you there?" _Even if she hadn't stated who she was, he would have known it was her. Not just because her voice was so familiar to him that he'd recognise it anywhere, but because even after the first time, her voice felt special in his mind; it gave him a tingly feeling all over his body and made his heart warm with love. He could just _feel_ that it was her, his soulfinder.

He wished he could continue speaking with her just so he could keep feeling that way but he knew that that wasn't an option; he had to focus on the mission right now. _"Yeah. Hazel now isn't a good time, that's why I didn't answer your phone calls. I'm sorry for not keeping you updated, it all just happened so quickly. We're in the compound now, spreading ourselves out around the empty warehouse."_

He was about to cut off the link when she suddenly answered in a panic, sounding afraid. _"Wait no, Victor. You can't go in there!"_

_"Why-" _He stopped after that word as he felt the link breaking, as if somebody had purposefully grabbed a hold of it and snapped it in half. For a moment, he wondered why but then he figured it out quickly.

"We're definitely in the right place," he said in a hushed whisper to the guys. "Telepathy has been cut off, none of our guys can do that. Either it's an automatic thing when you get close, or they know that we're here."

"Well let's move in there quickly before they get away," Gary nodded and started to lead the way, the other guys following close behind him and disappearing out of sight around the corner of the warehouse.

Victor hesitated though, standing still and undecided on what to do. Will hung back with him and quietly asked, "Vick, what are you doing? Come on, let's go."

"Hazel just told me not to go in there," Victor hissed. "Why would she say that without a reason? Will, I trust Hazel and she knows how important this is: we have to save our brother. She wants us to get him out of here, so why would she say that?"

Will frowned slightly, trying to think of a plausible reason and seemingly not coming up with one. "I'm not sure," he said slowly. "You really want to pull the mission because she told you not to go in there?"

"Yes," Victor answered immediately, nodding his head. "Like I said, I trust her."

Will sighed and tutted. "Well you're in charge so we better run after Gary and the others and tell them to retreat... Wait, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" They both fell silent, listening. For a moment they heard nothing but then they heard a shout, followed by a series of gunshots coming from the empty warehouse- it was two warehouses down from them. Despite Hazel's warning, the brothers ran towards the noise to help their colleagues, something they had been trained to do that was just a part of their job. Victor turned the safety off his gun just as they reached the scene and headed straight into the open warehouse.

The FBI team that Victor had put together to come here were crowded together in almost a straight line, shooting up at a little balcony that had five different guys there. The five of them were all shooting back, stood in front of a door that led to the only extra room in the warehouse according to the blueprints Victor had seen earlier today. He ducked just in time as a bullet whizzed past his head, a close call. He spotted a metal staircase leading up to the metal-railing balcony and calculated a path to the doorway. It would be tough to get up there without being spotted and shot at, but it was possible. And he knew it would be worth it; he didn't see Uriel anywhere in the empty space of the warehouse so he figured there was a high chance he was in the room up there.

"Keep shooting at them," he hissed into Gary's ears as one of the guys collapsed on the balcony. He had no idea how on Earth they were avoiding being shot by so many bullets, but didn't linger on that thought. "I'm going to try and get up there, distract them as best as you can." He turned to Will. "Stay here, I mean it. That's an order," he added officially, knowing that Will would hate letting his brother go into such danger alone but knowing that he couldn't let him follow him.

He slid around the group and ducked into the dark shadows that ran along each side of the room. Deciding not to make any sudden movements that would draw attention to himself, he slowly made his way up the stairs, making sure to keep an eye on the four remaining guys in case they noticed him and he had to move quickly. As he got closer, he saw bullets stopping right in front of the men before dropping to the floor: it was the man closest to Victor. He wasn't shooting his gun much, and was instead focusing on the air and using his mind to prevent the bullets from hitting any of his men. Victor looked down at his own men and saw a few on the ground, the others trying to protect them as they dodged bullets themselves, no doubt thankful for the FBI helmets that protected their heads and the bulletproof jackets that protected their torsos. _I need to take down that guy, _he thought to himself after looking back up and seeing yet more bullets dropping to the ground. _If I take down that guy, the others will go down easily, _he thought to himself.

He made his way up the rest of the steps and onto the balcony and as he stepped out of the shadows, the man with the savant power turned his head and saw him. He was a muscular guy, almost as big as Victor himself, with dark hair and an angry expression on his face. "Keep shooting!" He shouted at the other guys. "Get them down, we have to protect Nora!"

_Who the hell is Nora? _Victor had a moment to wonder before the savant came at him. Even without paying any attention to them, the bullets were stopping before they shot the other three guys. Victor shot his gun at the savant and was unsurprised when it stopped in front of his face and fell to the floor. The two men charged at each other and Victor threw a punch, one that was returned and knocked his helmet to the floor.

Victor blanked out the noise of the gunshots around him and fought off the man, taking and giving punches. The savant was strong... But Victor was stronger. He overpowered the man so that he was straddling his chest and punching him as hard as he could. "Where's my brother?" He shouted. "Is he in that room? Tell me!"

The man laughed hysterically before saying, "who, Uriel Benedict? Man, I gave him a right beating earlier! He was begging for me to stop but it was just so fun-"

Hearing somebody talk about his brother like that made Victor furious with overprotective anger and he grabbed hold of the man's head, lifting it up before smashing it against the metal floor as hard as he could. It had the effect that he wanted when he heard a crack and the savant passed out, his eyes rolling into the back of his head.

Breathing heavily, Victor clambered to his feet and turned around. With the savant's power not working, the three remaining men didn't stand a chance against the firing bullets from the FBI. Two of them fell to the floor quickly, writhing in pain whilst the third retreated into the open door of the room. Victor quickly followed, rushing into the room and stopping as he observed the situation.

An office desk was the only furniture in the room, paired with a leather chair that was occupied. The woman sitting there reminded Victor of Judith Williamson: they had the same blonde hair and looked very similar in the face, expect this woman had more wrinkles and a hooked nose. The man from the balcony stood by her side, his gun still in his hand. And on the floor was Uriel. He was sat up against the wall, eyes alert as he looked up at Victor; his face was bloody and bruised, but not as bad as it could have been. At least he was still recognizable and was able to open his eyes fully.

"Vick," he gasped, voice scratchy with what was probably just thirst. "You got here quicker than I expected," he cracked a joke, a faint smile on his face.

"Yeah well, your girlfriend was determined something was wrong simply because you didn't answer your phone," Victor replied. "She was going crazy with worry, even more than mum was."

"Shit, Hazel's not here is she?" He asked in a panic.

"No, I told her it wasn't safe," he shook his head, obviously not having any plans to tell Uriel the whole truth. "She's back at your flat, waiting for you."

"Well this is a very heart-warming reunion," the blonde woman said in a bored voice. "But the fact of the matter is, my plan has worked perfectly."

Victor turned to face her head on, looking at her with a frown on his face and narrowed eyes. "What plan? And who are you exactly?"

"Who I am isn't relevant right now," she shrugged her shoulders. "Just know that I certainly have a reason for all of this... And I am afraid to tell you Mr Benedict, your brother here was just a pawn in my game. You're the one that I wanted. I can manipulate people's minds, just like you, and that's how I have people working for me and keep them loyal. You see, it all fit together rather easily so that I could get to you."

"Why do you need me? You can't make me work for you. I have the same power as you so yours won't work on me, you know that's how mind powers work," Victor pointed out cautiously.

"I don't want you to work for me," she rolled her eyes like he was an idiot. "For the protection of my sister, I need to kill you, Victor Benedict. I also need to kill Hazel Clarrison, it's such a shame that she didn't come with you so I could get it over with; I'll have to go and find Hazel once we're done here."

"If you kill me you won't get out of here alive, I can promise you that," Victor threatened. He was nervous and worried for Hazel - even just the thought of this woman going anywhere near Hazel, never mind killing her, frightened the life out of him - but he put a masked expression on his face like he usually did so as to not show his worry.

"My friend here," she gestured towards the man next to her, "will stop any bullets from getting me and shoot anybody that comes near me. So yes, I will get out of here alive. And then I will find and kill Hazel, it's as simple as that. I hope my sister appreciates all of this that I'm doing for her," she sighed. "Daniel, kill him."

The man next to her held the gun up in front of him, pointing it straight at Victor's head.

And then, before Victor's mind could even register what was happening so that he could move, he pulled the trigger.


	20. Chapter 20

Author's note: Thank you for the reviews!

About the end of the last chapter: I am fully capable of killing off a main character... But I guess you'll have to wait and see if I was able to kill off _the_ Victor Benedict ;)

Ok there are only two chapters left after this but I may or may not write an epilogue, I'm not sure yet.

Please read and review xoxo

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**30th January 2013**

_It kills me to see you with him... I think I love you. _She kept hearing Victor's voice in her head as she walked circles in the flat, impatient to hear any news. She kept seeing his face in her mind, looking so broken as he finally dropped his mask and revealed his true feelings for her. It literally pained her to think of him in so much anguish, as if his pain made her feel pain too.

Hazel now knew how she felt about Victor, after keeping it locked away in her mind for so long. But she also knew how she felt about Uriel too. Being in love with two men was something she'd never imagined was possible for herself but it had happened and she couldn't stop thinking about it. With nothing else to do or think about, she was unable to stop herself from having these thoughts. The love she felt for both of them was so similar yet the complete opposite of each other at the same time.

She had been in love with Uriel for years, always hooked on memories of him and unable to move on. She'd always believed that he was the one for her. Even when they first met, on the first day of university in that almost empty classroom, she had somehow just known that there was something about him that screamed they would be in each other's lives for a long time. Uriel was sweet and relaxed, always able to calm her mind and he was the reason she figured out how to stay focused on work; he brought out a better and more content side of her.

Victor was another matter entirely. She'd despised him and his cocky arrogance since the moment she met him, hating that she was going to have to be around for a long amount of time. But over time, she saw that he was a much more complex character than that and did have good qualities to him that could actually outweigh the bad. He wasn't perfect like Uriel was, not by a long shot, and he drove her absolutely crazy, but around him she was more vibrant and alert to the world around her. He made her heart flutter in a way that Uriel couldn't and she could totally imagine having a future with him.

But. _But_. She couldn't bear the thought of breaking up with Uriel for his brother, nor could she bare the thought of seeing Victor around for the rest of her life but not be with him, seeing him instead fall for some other woman to marry and grow old with. She didn't want to have to choose between them but she knew that it would come to that eventually.

And she didn't know who she was going to choose.

Hazel stopped pacing around the living room when her phone rang loudly, the Caller ID displaying Richard Smith-Dwight's name. Quickly picking it up off the coffee table, she answered, "sir? What is it? Do you have any news?"

"I have good news and bad news," he replied. "Which would you like first? In fact, don't answer that: the bad news comes first. The bad news is that the FBI went into the warehouse before my guys managed to get there and they had a few casualties, one death."

"And the good news?"

"Good news is that my guys got there just in time to stop any more of the FBI from being killed. Plus, your theory about Nora Connors? Spot on. Well done, Clarrison. Nora had manipulated the minds of five guys, four of whom were killed by the FBI and one of whom was arrested and taken into custody along with Nora Connors. Miss Connors will be going away for a very long time. Elliott Williamson is off the hook and there will be no court hearing so you're free to go home."

Hazel breathed a sigh of relief that everything had fallen into place before remembering to ask, "wait, what about Uriel Benedict? Did Victor get him out of there?"

Richard paused for a moment before a sigh was heard over the phone. "Right... Benedict. Yeah, that's also some bad news I need to give you. Something happened in there Clarrison, and I don't think it's the kind of news I should break to you over the phone. I've been informed that the Benedict family have all gathered at the hospital for news, so you should go there. Be with the family and get them to explain what happened to you in person. Anyway, I've got a ton of paperwork to fill in about the whole ordeal." That was a dismissal by him apparently as he hung up the phone.

Hazel stood completely still, phone still pressed to her ear as her mouth went dry and her hand starting shaking. The hospital? Why were they at the hospital, what did he mean it wasn't the kind of news to break to her over the phone? She couldn't help thinking back to what he had said just a moment before: a few casualties, one death. _One death_. Who had died? Richard didn't say which Benedict the 'bad news' had happened to. She was terrified at the thought of either one of them being seriously hurt, maybe even dead.

She rushed to put her shoes and coat on, grabbing her car keys and heading out of the flat in record time. She was desperate to hear that Uriel and Victor were both okay and alive; she'd go through the pain of having to choose between them if it meant that they were both fine.

She cried the whole way to the hospital and once there, got directions to the correct floor from a nurse, and took the steps because it seemed like she was waiting forever for the elevator to arrive. The Benedict family weren't in the waiting room. In a panic, she near enough ran around the corridors until she found them. They were gathered outside a room, crowding the hallway and looking nervous. They were all there, even little Gracie who was sat on Saul's knee (he was the only one with a chair), except Uriel and Victor.

"What's happened?" Hazel asked, breathing heavily after they noticed her. "I didn't get told what happened, just that you were here. Where is he?" She added, not sure which 'he' she was referring to.

"In there," Xavier answered her, pointing towards the hospital room. "You might as well go in. He asked us lot to give him a moment alone, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind you going in."

"Thank you," she smiled at him gratefully. She pushed the door open and let it close behind her, her eyes going straight to the figure stood by the window. "Uriel," she breathed quietly, but he heard her. He turned around to face her, bruises marring his skin, and smiled euphorically when he saw her. Hazel dashed across the room to him, throwing her arms around his waist and clinging on tightly, kissing his cheek. "Oh thank God! I was so worried about you, I thought something terrible had happened. Don't ever scare me like that again! God, I love you so much."

"I love you too," he laughed and loosened his grip on her waist, wincing slightly. "Careful though, I have a few broken ribs. Doc says I'll be okay, but it's still a little sore."

"Oh, sorry!" She quickly let go of his waist and lifted her hands to cup his cheeks. "Your face..."

"Doesn't even hurt, I promise," he smiled. "I'm fine, honestly. It was scary yeah, but nothing I can't handle. I'm so glad that _you're_ okay. The woman, she kept saying that she was going to kill you and Victor, it terrified me."

Hazel's eyes widened. For a moment she had forgotten about Victor somehow. "Victor. Where is he? He's okay, right? Uriel?"

He nodded to a spot behind her and she slowly turned around, her eyes finally noticing the hospital bed and the man in it. Victor lay there unconscious, various tubes and wires going into him and connecting to the machines behind him. He was pale white and Hazel knew that he wasn't having a relaxed sleep because his face didn't look peaceful like it had on the sofa just this morning... It sure had been a long day.

"Wh- what happened?" She stammered, gulping in nervous fear. "What happened to him? Is he going to be okay?"

Uriel sighed and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind before speaking. "Well, I don't know what happened beforehand but Victor came into the room that Nora was keeping me in- You know about Nora, right?"

"Yeah I figured it all out first," she nodded, her eyes unable to look away from Victor's body just laying in the hospital bed. "I called my boss and told him to send some guys over."

"Clever girl," she heard a smile in his voice. "Anyway, Victor came into the room and was having it out with Nora. She said she was going to kill both him and you to protect her sister... And she told Daniel, a man that was working for her and was in that room next to her, to kill Victor. Daniel aimed for Victor's head and shot... God, I thought he was going to kill him and I was just sat there, unable to move because my broken ribs hurt so much and I really thought I was going to see my brother get killed right in front of my eyes... It was the scariest moment of my life for sure and I have no doubts that I will have nightmares because of it." He paused for a moment to take a deep breath and compose himself. "But then this guy appeared out of nowhere - I now know that he works for your boss - and he pushed Victor out of the way just in time. Daniel shot at Victor again though, twice before a group of men came in to arrest Nora and Daniel.

"Victor's right hip bone is shattered. Xav would have healed him but when a bone is broken so badly, literally shattered, there's nothing he can do really. Xav managed to heal him a little, to get the bullets out of him which confused the doctors. The second bullet went into Victor's chest- barely missed his heart, he was lucky. The doctors are certain he's going to be okay once he's had time to heal. He'll have to have an operation on his hip and he'll struggle with his walking a little, but he'll be fine. They're keeping him unconscious for a few days to give him a chance to rest.

"I guess my family and I have you to thank for Victor being saved. If you hadn't figured out the truth about Nora and called your boss, reinforcements wouldn't have turned up when they did and Daniel would have ended up shooting Victor straight in the head. You saved Victor's life Hazel, it's all down to you that he's alive right now."

Hazel let out a long and heavy breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding in. _He's going to be okay, _she thought to herself. She suddenly felt so guilty because she was more relieved that Victor was going to be okay than she had been about Uriel. Was that because of the soulfinder link, or something else?

"Well that's great," she replied to Uriel, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"You wanna get out of here?" He asked gently, kissing her neck lightly. "He's not going to be waking up tonight, or even for a few days, so we can easily visit him later. It's been a long day, I just want to go home and fall asleep with you in my arms."

Hazel couldn't resist the smile that spread across her face; Uriel was just so sweet and always knew the right things to say to her. He was her best friend and a life without him now seemed impossible to her. She was about to turn around in his arms, to kiss him and choose to stay with him, to go home with him and love him for the rest of her life...

But then Victor stirred in his sleep, his head tossing back and forth a few times before a frown marred his face and he started mumbling words in his sleep, words that although mumbled were loud and clear to Uriel and Hazel. "No..." Victor said, his fingers clutching at the sheet. "Hazel, no... My soulfinder, not his... I love you... Be with me, Hazel..." He sighed loudly before relaxing again and falling silent.

Hazel froze as Uriel let go of her and stepped around her to look at her, the same shocked expression on both of their faces. Uriel gulped, gritting his teeth and forcing himself to speak. "He wants you to be with him... Why does he want you to be with him? Why did he say he was in love with you? What... What did he mean by 'my soulfinder, not his', Hazel? Tell me. Now."

Tears filled her eyes at the look on his face and she opened and closed her mouth a few times, at first unable to speak. "Uriel, I..."

"What? Tell me!" He snapped, clearly upset as he shook his head and cried too. "Tell me that what he said isn't true, that it's just all the meds getting to his head."

She could have lied to him, gone along with that story no matter how unbelievable it was. And there was a part of her that was saying she _should_ lie to him so that their relationship wouldn't be ruined and she wouldn't have to see him heartbroken again like that day in the airport years ago. But this was Uriel, one of the men she was in love with, and she couldn't lie to him. She just couldn't.

In that moment, when given the choice whether or not to lie to Uriel, a revelation came to her: she knew who she wanted to be with. Who she was going to choose. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Victor, not just because he was her soulfinder, but because he made her complete and made her feel alive. She couldn't imagine settling down with Uriel, but she could imagine settling down with Victor.

She looked up at Uriel and took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry," she started. "I never meant for this to happen, I didn't even dream of it. I didn't want Victor to be my soulfinder, but he is and I can't control that. I swear to you that I never cheated on you; Victor and I didn't want to hurt you so we tried to ignore the fact we were soulfinders. Surely you're not angry at me over something I had no control over? I love you, you have to believe me."

Uriel shook his head and let out a humourless short laugh. "That's not what I'm angry at you about! I'm angry at both of you for not telling me. Didn't you think I deserved to know this? Did you honestly believe that I would never find out? God, Hazel... I can't do this. I can't be with you, knowing that you're my little brother's soulfinder and that he wants to be with you. I'm not that type of guy. I saw your face when you asked if Victor was okay and I guess I tried not to notice the look in your eyes but I did... You're in love with him, aren't you? I'm not saying that you don't love me, but I'm saying that you love him too. Am I right?"

Uriel had always been intelligent and Hazel was unsurprised that he'd figured this out so quickly. She nodded and quietly admitted out loud for the first time ever: "Yeah, I think I do love him as well as you. I didn't plan for this to happen but it did. And I'm so sorry."

Uriel shook his head again and ran his fingers through his hair before saying, "I can't deal with this right now. I've just got back from being kidnapped and I am tired and injured... and I just need to get out of here." And then he left the room without so much as a glance backwards at her, the door slamming shut behind him.

Hazel couldn't believe that that had just happened. She'd always thought that if she chose Victor, he and her would sit down with Uriel and have an adult discussion about it; the proper way that was best for everybody. This certainly was _not_ the right way for Uriel to have found out about this. Her heart broke for him and this whole situation.

She slowly walked over to the hospital bed, looking down at Victor's sleeping face quietly. She longed to be with him, a longing that seemed to come from deep inside her soul. And was that really surprising? He was her soulfinder, of course that was to be expected.

But that didn't change her feelings for Uriel and she couldn't even stand the thought of seeing him hurting because of her relationship with Victor. Uriel would never be okay with her and Victor being together, he would never be able to stand seeing them together. And she simply could not hurt him like that.

She leaned down and gently kissed Victor's forehead before straightening up, wiping away her tears and leaving the hospital room, quickly dashing past the rest of the Benedict family before they could ask her any questions about why Uriel had left... Unless they had overheard him shouting which was highly possible.

She left the hospital, now knowing for certain what she was going to do in regards to her future.


	21. Chapter 21

Author's note: I've decided not to write an epilogue so the chapter after this one will be the LAST CHAPTER. Wow. I can't believe it's nearly finished!

I was a bit unsure on how to write this chapter at first but I am actually very happy with how it turned out :)

Please read and review xoxo

* * *

**31st January 2013**

It was late evening and Hazel was on the plane, heading back to London. She'd made her choice: as much as she wanted to be with Victor, she couldn't hurt Uriel like that, so she was heading home and letting them both move on with their lives without her getting between them. It was the best thing for them both, she had decided. It wouldn't be pleasant on her to never see either of them again, but this wasn't about her. This was about them and the fact she wanted to protect them from losing their close relationship as brothers just because of her.

She relaxed back in her first class seat - courtesy of the savant net - and closed her eyes, thinking back to this morning. In the afternoon she had visited Victor and heard from a doctor herself that he would be okay; she'd sat with him for over an hour before leaving in case his family turned up, leaving him a letter seeing as she didn't have a chance to say goodbye to him face-to-face due to him still being unconscious. Before that though, in the morning, she had gone back to Uriel's flat after spending the night at a hotel...

_Hazel took a few shaky breaths before unlocking the door to his flat with a trembling hand. She stepped inside the silent flat and shut the door behind her gently, turning around slowly to face him. Uriel was sat on the sofa, leaning forward with his head in his hands and didn't look up at her. "You're here," he said in a gruff voice that suggested he'd had hardly any sleep. "I wondered when you'd turn up to get your suitcase and things."_

_She put the key on a small table near the door and locked her fingers together nervously, squeezing her own hands tightly. "Uriel..." She sounded just as tired as he did due to the fact she hadn't slept at all herself. "Can we talk first? I don't want to leave America on bad terms with you."_

_Finally, he looked up at her with a startled look on his face. "You're leaving the country? Going home?" She nodded in reply. "But why? I thought you'd want to stay here to be with Victor. He's your soulfinder and in hospital, after all."_

_Hazel sighed and walked over, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table in front of the sofa so the pair were facing each other. "I'm going to go by the hospital after here. I'm leaving him a letter to say goodbye," she admitted softly. "I need to go home, Uri. I have a new nephew that I need to meet and Tommy and Lila miss me. Plus, I... I know that I'm probably not welcome here anymore. None of us planned for all this to happen but it did and we can't change that. We can't change the past, or change fate. It's out of our control now."_

_"But he's your soulfinder," Uriel said with a confused frown and a small shake of the head. "Everybody's heard all of the stories about soulfinders. Every part of you wants to be with him because he is perfect for you, blah blah blah. How could you just leave and not want that?"_

_"Because I love _you_," she said simply. "And I love Victor too. I don't want to hurt either of you but no matter what I do one of you will be hurt, so me leaving is the only way to deal with that."_

_"You leaving will hurt both of us," he pointed out. "You're running away to avoid the problems. And just leaving him a letter, not even saying a proper goodbye... You're going to break his heart as well as mine. You're running away," he repeated sternly._

_"Maybe I am running away but it's for the best even if you don't realise that yet," she argued. "I'm not going to lie to you: I want to be with Victor. But I know you will never be okay with that, you will never be able to accept us being together and I know it will hurt you to see us together. And I can't do that to you; Victor wouldn't be able to either, it's why he hid his feelings from me for so long. He'll understand why I'm leaving and he will get over it and move on."_

_"You're giving up being with your soulfinder so that you don't hurt me?" He gasped._

_"Yeah," she nodded and stood up. "I am. I've made my decision and my flight's booked, you can't change my mind about this." As he stood up too, she looked into his eyes and smiled sadly. "Just promise me a few things? Promise that you and Victor will look after each other and not let this ruin how close you are. And that you'll move on, you'll forget about me and you'll be happy with your life."_

_His lips twitched into a forced, agonized smile. "Victor's my brother, I'd never let anything get between us permanently," he said, reassuring her mind. "As for the second promise... I don't know if I could just forget about you and move on so easily. Just like I don't think you'll be able to move on and forget about me and Victor. So, you're really leaving, huh?"_

_"This evening, yes," she nodded and gulped. "I suppose I should get my things and go."_

_"We were good together, weren't we?" Uriel asked in a quiet voice. "I mean, you were happy weren't you?"_

_"Of course," she smiled at him. "So happy. I thought that we were going to be... You know, together for a long time. That's what I wanted. But I guess you don't always get what you want, things happen and get in the way and... good things fall apart."_

_"For better things to come together," Uriel finished the quote before sighing. "I'll miss you, Hazel."_

_"And I'll miss you. Don't ever doubt that, you were - and still are - important to me, and I just want you to be happy. I'm sorry that things turned out this way."_

_"Yeah. Me too. But everything happens for a reason."_

Hazel hadn't thought it was possible for her and Uriel to part on good terms but it seemed like they had. Uriel had calmed down overnight and didn't seem to blame her anymore, understanding that it was something she couldn't control and that her and Victor were just trying to do right by him. Nothing she nor Uriel could say would make either of them less brokenhearted about the situation, but at least he didn't hate her and their last memory of each other wouldn't be an argument.

She felt bad for not having waited until Victor woke up to say a proper goodbye to him too, but the truth was that she was scared. She was frightened to face him, to have to see the look on his face and she told him that she was leaving. It was her last selfish act with him but she was calmer a little when she remembered that everything she had wrote in the letter explained all of her feelings.

Like she'd been thinking a lot recently, a life without either of the two Benedict brothers seemed impossible to her, but it was happening now. She would go home to her apartment and back to her department at work; she would spend time with her brother and his family, visit her parents' grave; and she would try and move on, try and fall in love with somebody else, but she'd always know that there was no way of that happening at all.

It would be a mediocre life at best, but it would be worth it to know that she hadn't split two brothers apart and that she wouldn't constantly be hurting them anymore. _You're doing the right thing_, she told herself as her heart beat painfully in her chest, longing to be near its other half. _This is the right decision and you'll probably never see either of them ever again._

* * *

**2nd February 2013**

Victor had only been awake for ten minutes and his mother was already getting on his nerves by fussing over him. After she helped him sit up, he looked around the otherwise empty hospital room and felt disappointed not to see Hazel sat there. Had she been to visit him in the days he'd been unconscious? Or was she looking after Uriel, still with him even after Victor's outburst of a speech the last time he'd seen her? Had his declaration of love done nothing to change her decision of who to be with?

"Mum," he said, his voice raspy from not speaking for a few days. "The case... What happened?"

Karla sat down in the chair next to him and smiled. "It's all done and dusted with. Nora Connors was arrested- I'm sure your boss will explain who she is and why did she everything in detail to you when you go back to work. Mr Williamson was released from prison and house arrest, everybody knows that he is innocent now. There'll be no court case so everything's finished with now."

That was good, he thought. At least he wouldn't have to go against Hazel in court. He sighed as he thought about her again, glad that his mum already knew so that he could talk to her. "Mum, where's Hazel?" He asked quietly, blushing a little. He felt vulnerable and knew that it was showing; he was far too tired to put up his mask and make it look like he didn't care when in truth he did care. A lot. "I need to see her, talk to her. Has she visited at all?"

Karla hesitated, her eyes flickering down to the floor to break contact with his. "Well..."

"What?" He quickly asked. "What is it? She's okay, right?"

"Yes, she's fine," Karla nodded. She picked up her handbag from the floor and unzipped it, pulling out an envelope with his name printed on it. "I came to visit you with Uriel and we found this. Uriel said that it was from Hazel to you- he knows about you and Hazel now, you mentioned it in your sleep in front of him. I put it in my handbag so that a nurse didn't accidentally throw it away." She held it out to him and he silently took it from her. Karla stood up and said, "I'll give you a moment alone to read it, okay? I'll go and call your brothers, tell them that you're awake." She smiled and kissed his forehead before leaving the room, shutting the door behind her.

Victor turned the unopened envelope around in his hand, wondering what was written inside. Why would Hazel leave him a letter, if that's what it was? Why not come by and speak to him in person, wouldn't that have been easier? He was terrified of what he would find inside it but in the end, his curiosity got the better of him and he opened the envelope. There was a letter inside, written in Hazel's neat cursive script. After taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Victor began to read the letter:

**Victor,**

**How did we end up like this? I never imagined this is how it would end, never once imagined that I would be re-writing a letter 15 times for you, crying whilst I did so. But I am. Life can be surprising sometimes, can't it?**

**By the time you read this letter I will be already be in London, settling back into my old life. As I write this now, I don't know how I'll be able to have a normal life again, knowing that you're out there - my soulfinder, my soulmate - and that I am not with you.**

**You see, the thing with me is that I have so many thoughts and feelings that I want to say but I'm always either too scared to say them or I just don't know how to. I always keep them locked away inside, bottled up tightly until one day I just explode and it all just spills out in one outburst. I guess you and I are similar in that way. This is my way of getting all of my feelings out, honestly. It's not as scary as saying them out loud, I have to admit, and I don't know how this letter is going to turn out, but I hope it tells you everything you want to know.**

**As you might already know or guess, Uriel knows that we are soulfinders. I explained everything to him, how you and I didn't even want to be together at first because not only did we not like each other, but because we just didn't want to hurt him. Wasn't that our objective the whole time, to save Uriel from pain and heartache? And I think we succeeded in doing that, up until now anyway.**

**Do you want to know the truth? I am in love with you, Victor Benedict. You make me feel like I am losing my mind and more often than not I want to slap you to shut you up, but you also make me feel alive and I know that you're a wonderful man. My love for you crept up on me, hitting me like a train out of nowhere. But if offered the chance, I would fall for you all over again.**

**I still love Uriel though. I hope you don't despise me for that but it's true. I know that sometimes love fades over time, but my love for him hasn't faded. And I don't think it ever will. One thing I do know however, is that my love for Uriel isn't as strong as I once thought it was. My love for you is stronger.**

**I can fully imagine myself having a future with you. Getting married, having children, growing old and dying next to each other. I can imagine us dying in an embrace, like Noah and Allie in The Notebook. Although I have a feeling our embrace would be strangling each other instead of holding each other, because I would like to think that even at the age we'd manage to wind each other up. But we'd still love each other of course, we'd love each other then just as much as we do now, maybe even more.**

**I want that and I can picture that and I will dream of that, but I know that it can't happen. Our objective was not to hurt Uriel because we both love him so much, and us being together... It would devastate him, we both know that. He would never be able to accept it.**

**So that's why I've left. Because as much as I want a life with you, I couldn't stand hurting him that much. I hope you can understand that Victor, and I hope you agree that this is the right thing to do for everybody involved.**

**I don't think anybody could have predicted this ending but maybe this is the way it was always supposed to end. Maybe being soulfinders doesn't always automatically mean that we have to spend the rest of our lives with each other. Sacrificing our love for your brother and for your relationship with him is a good thing Victor, something that will be worth it. Uriel is... Well, perfect. He doesn't deserve to be hurt in this way.**

**Who knows, maybe this will be good for you and I too. Maybe we wouldn't actually be good for each other. Maybe we'll both find somebody else, fall in love and be happy. Maybe that's what the next chapter in our lives will be. Or maybe not, we'll have to wait and see.**

**I hope you will be happy, Victor. You deserve to be happy.**

**With all of my love,**

**Hazel.**

Victor let go of the letter, letting it fall into his lap silently. He couldn't believe that what he had just read was real, but there it was in black and white right in front of him. She had really wrote this, she was really gone. She was really out of his life for good.

For a moment he considered going to London as soon as he was released from hospital and searching for her; he considered fighting for her, refusing to let her go... But he knew that she was right. This whole time they had both just wanted the best for Uriel and he didn't want that to change now. This was his brother they were talking about- he could never hurt his own brother like that.

And Victor agreed with Hazel: he didn't think that Uriel would ever be able to accept them being together which meant that they would constantly feel guilty for being in love. And that wasn't the kind of relationship he wanted.

So when Karla came back into the room, he slid the letter under the bedsheet and forced a smile onto his face for the sake of his mother. He knew that he wasn't fooling her as she could probably see the sadness in his eyes but he kept up the pretense because he didn't want to break down in front of her.

And when the rest of his family - minus Uriel - turned up a half hour later, he faked a smile for them too and forced any thoughts of running after Hazel to leave his mind.

Because he agreed with her.

She had done the right thing by leaving.


	22. Chapter 22

**20th April 2013**

Hazel had changed over the past three months or so, on the outside and inside. Her hair - which used to go just past her shoulders and was a chestnut colour with blonde highlights - was still in its natural curls, but she had grown it to the centre of her back and no longer had highlights. It was the first change she'd made to herself after moving back to London. And another thing - one that Hazel had felt herself and her brother had mentioned - was that she didn't smile as much anymore. She focused hard on her work and different court cases she was being put through, and didn't give herself any time left over for a social life.

The only times she genuinely smiled and enjoyed herself these days was when she was spending time with her nephews and niece. There was something about children that cleared her mind of everything that had happened in America and she no longer found herself thinking about the Benedicts whenever she was with them. Of course she still had dreams of them at night though- that was something she couldn't change.

Her dedication to her work had focused her mind on something other than thoughts of going back to Denver thankfully, and she hardly ever considered it anymore. What was there for her now anyway? Uriel and Victor were both lovely, attractive men so why wouldn't they have already moved on with somebody else? That was what she had told them to do and that was what she still wanted them to do. She really needed to stop thinking otherwise.

"Aunty Haze, what do I do with this?" Tommy's voice brought her thoughts back to reality. She was babysitting the three children for the day so that George and Aimee could have a day out alone; she was in the kitchen with the older two, attempting to bake cupcakes with them. Tommy was holding up a whisk, looking up at her questioningly.

"That's what you use to stir the mix. Look," she took the whisk from him and demonstrated what he should do. "Just like that, okay? Try not to stir so hard that the mix flies out of the bowl though."

"Okay," he nodded seriously, taking the whisk from her and stirring the mix attentively, a concentrated frown on his face and his tongue sticking out a little.

Hazel smiled and moved over to Lila - the little girl was the spitting image of her mother with the same fair skin, freckles, and curly ginger hair - who was eating the chocolate drops they'd laid out to put on top of the cupcakes when they were finished. "Lila, who said you could eat them?" She laughed, rolling her eyes. "Why don't you get a spoon and help your brother stir the mix?"

As the two of them got on with that task, Hazel looked up at the clock and noticed it was about time for the baby to be fed. As the bottle was heating up, she cleaned up the mess they'd made so far on the kitchen counters and even the floor too. Just as the bottle was finished, she heard Cailen start crying in the living room and smiled- at only a few months old, he had the perfect timing every single time. George and Aimee were lucky that he was such a perfectly well-behaved baby, especially compared to the constantly screaming monsters that Tommy and Lila had been.

Knowing that she couldn't leave the two of them in the kitchen unsupervised, she ushered them into the dining room to do some drawing at the table for a short while before grabbing the bottle from the kitchen and walking into the living room.

She stopped, frozen in the doorway, when she saw a muscular figure in a leather jacket leaning down into the moses basket before they picked Cailen up, straightening up to a 6 and half foot frame with him in their arms. Cailen stopped crying as the person gently rocked him from side to side. The height and size of the person was familiar to Hazel, as was the short ponytail that his dark hair was pulled back into. It couldn't be him though... Could it?

"Stop," she spoke loudly and clearly, ready to dash to the phone to call for help if she needed it. After all, the front door had been locked so how had he got in? Plus, it might not even be who she thought it was, it might be a burglar or a kidnapper for all she knew. "Who are you and how the hell did you get in here? Turn around now."

Slowly, the man turned around, revealing light brown skin and brown eyes, along with a nervous expression in his eyes and a crooked smile on his face. "Hey Hazel," he said in his husky voice; a voice that brought chills to Hazel after going months without hearing it. "Long time no see, huh?"

Hazel's eyes were wide open as she stared up at him. He was really here! But how? And why? When she'd woken up this morning, she'd had no idea that later that day she would be seeing him again; she didn't imagine that that would ever be possible. She'd had dreams of him turning up like a knight in shining armour and she always knew what to say then, but with it actually happening right in front of her eyes... She was speechless with no thoughts as to what to say to him.

She was given an extra moment to think when Cailen started crying again. "Here, give him to me," she held out her arms. "He wants feeding." He did as she said and Hazel cradled Cailen in her arms, silencing him with the bottle as he drank away happily. "Victor... How did you even get in here?" She asked the first question that came to mind.

"I managed to get hold of your brother's cell phone number- perks of being in the FBI. I called him last night and we arranged to meet today," he answered with a smile. "He said that you'd told him everything and he wanted to meet me. He and Aimee must have approved because they gave me a key to the house and said I'd find you here. I didn't mean to frighten you. I did knock, you just must not have heard."

"Yeah I was in the kitchen," she said distractedly before sighing loudly. "Victor, why are you here? I explained why I was leaving in that letter, I thought you'd understand."

"What, this letter?" He pulled the very same letter out of his pocket. It was wrinkled and crumbled, even torn in a few places around the edges. "I can't believe you said goodbye in a letter, Hazel. Of course I understand why you left and I think you did the right thing but a _letter_? Really? I thought that I was more important to you than that, important enough to warrant a proper goodbye that is. You have no idea how this letter effected me. I carry it with me everywhere and re-read it at least once a day, your last words to me. You know you never even told me that you loved me to my face. Hell, we haven't even kissed once! A letter was basically like a slap in the face to me, Hazel."

"I'm sorry," she said quietly, forcing herself not to cry. "Really, I am. I just wanted to leave and you were still unconscious and I couldn't stand the sight of you in hospital. I'm selfish, okay? I know that! Besides, I never would have been able to say all of that to your face. I would have frozen up. Ah hell, hang on a second-" She added as Cailen decided he didn't want anymore milk.

She placed the bottle on the coffee table and sat on the sofa, grabbing a bib and burping him before cleaning him up. She stood back up and put Cailen back in the moses basket before turning back around to face Victor. There was an awed look in his eyes as he grinned at her that made her feel uncomfortable. "What?" She asked self-consciously.

"Nothing," he shook his head. "It's just that you're really good with him. It's nice to see."

"Thank you," she smiled, his praise making her tingle all over. "Why are you here?" She asked gently, repeating her earlier words. "You shouldn't have come."

"I came because of this." He waved the letter in the air. "I'm sick and tired of reading it and thinking that's the end. That we're over. I can't accept that, Clarrison. The future you described... Getting married, having children, growing old together and dying together... I want all of that. Not with anybody else, _with you_. I could never have that with some other woman, knowing that you're out there somewhere. So you can try and tell me to get out of here, to forget about this whole thing between us, but it is _never_ going to happen." His voice was slowly rising until he was literally shouting. "You're my soulfinder and I'll be damned if I let you get away from me again! I'm fighting for you this time because I love you and we belong together, and you're an idiot if you think I can move on from that."

Hazel took a step back, slightly scared and intimidated by this side of Victor. "But... Uriel..." She stammered.

"You can't use him as an excuse anymore," he smirked, shaking his head. He pulled another letter out of his back pocket and held it out to her. "He knew you might not believe what I said so he wrote you a letter. Go on, read it."

Hazel cautiously took the letter from him and read it, her heart pounding loudly in her chest as she did so:

**Hazel,**

**You have no idea what the past few months have been like for my family, seriously. Victor fakes a smile every day but still mopes around the place, looking like a lost puppy. It's depressing and morbid, and frankly we're all sick of it. So my parents and other brothers convinced me to persuade Victor in going to London to get you back.**

**I was reluctant at first because despite you telling me to move on and me knowing that I can never have you back, I haven't moved on and I still love you. But the thing is, I can't bear the thought of you being unhappy for the rest of your life because you and Victor both put me before yourself.**

**I want you to be happy, and I guess if that's not with me, that's fine and I'll learn to live with that. Because you're the only person, besides my family, that I love enough to put before myself. Seeing you happy makes me happy, and that's what love is. So I'm letting you go because although it will hurt me to see you with him, the pain will be worth it to know that you're happy.**

**Just for once, put your own happiness before mine please.**

**It will be awkward and painful for a long time, but I will learn to accept your relationship with him over time. Besides, my mind is reassured by the thought of one day finding my own soulfinder and having my own epic love story.**

**You and Victor have my blessing to be together.**

**Uriel.**

"Is this for real?" Hazel asked as she looked up at Victor, her mouth dry. She gulped and licked her lips. "Is Uriel really the one that told you to come here?"

"Yes," he nodded and took a step closer to her. "Of course I wanted to, but I knew that you'd done the right thing by leaving at the time. There was just one thing we both got wrong: it wasn't the right thing for you to be gone forever. We were only supposed to have a break, to give Uriel a chance to heal and get used to the idea of us two being together. I was miserable without you, so miserable that my own family couldn't stand being around me. Surely that's not the way this was supposed to turn out? I can't imagine fate would be so cruel.

"You can try and run away again, but I'll follow you. You can try and push me away, but I'm not going anywhere. I'm not letting go so easily this time. So what's it going to be, Clarrison?"

When she had first seen him standing there in her brother's living room, Hazel had been shocked beyond belief. A part of her had been thrilled to see him, but mostly she was in despair because she thought she would have to say goodbye to him and be heartbroken all over again. Her feelings for him hadn't changed whilst being away from him, if anything they had intensified. The saying 'distance makes the heart grow fonder' came to her mind.

Reading Uriel's letter and realizing that she could now be with Victor without feeling guilty about it made her heart swell in her chest and suddenly all her dreams about the future seemed like they could actually become reality. It was the best feeling in the world.

"You're really stubborn, you know that, Benedict?" She asked, raising her eyebrows as she smirked.

"Oh I know," he grinned. "But so is my soulfinder. So I guess a life with her is going to be unpredictable."

"I suppose it is," she laughed and closed the distance between them by taking two steps forward.

As soon as she got close enough, Victor grabbed hold of her waist and pulled her tightly to his chest, pressing his lips against hers. Hazel lifted her arms up around his neck, kissing him back eagerly. And the kiss was much more than she could have expected, much more than Georgie and Karla had explained it would be. It _was_ magical, loving and passionate like they'd said, but it was so much more too. It was explosive and made her mind forget about her surroundings; it was a kiss that promised a lifetime together. Their lips fit together perfectly, moving in a dance in unison- if they ever needed proof that they belonged together, this was it.

When they parted so that they could breathe, Hazel missed kissing him already. She looked into Victor's eyes, seeing a sparkle in them that she had never seen before as they smiled at each other gently. "I guess we have a lot to talk about," she whispered, feeling like speaking loudly would ruin the moment. "Like whether you'll move here or I'll move to Denver... But for now, would you like to help us make cupcakes? Oh and by the way, I love you."

Victor laughed and said, "sure, I'll help out. And I love you too," before kissing her again.

* * *

Author's note: And there you go, that was the LAST CHAPTER!

I did have an alternate ending in my mind, where they both met somebody else and moved on with their lives, but I've fallen in love with my characters and just wanted them to have a happy ending together, haha.

Big big big thank you to everybody that has reviewed this story, I always look forward to reading your thoughts and they mean a lot to me :)

The story's name is from Love & War by Rita Ora. The picture portraying Hazel is Samantha Barks.

Please leave reviews!

The next story in my series will be Zed's story and you've actually already read about his love interest in this story! I plan on starting the chapter today so it might be posted today, if not then tomorrow. Xo

**EDIT: **I posted this chapter and then deleted it so I'm sorry if it messed up your alerts or something. Thing is, I looked back and realised that when I'd copied and pasted it I had accidentally deleted two paragraphs about Hazel's feelings towards the end of the chapter. So I fixed it and re-posted the chapter. Sorry about that.


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